Dr. Andrew Brown
West 1982
Dr. Andrew Brown has devoted much of his medical career to the U.S. Air Force. He deployed to Saudi Arabia in 1999 and to Afghanistan in 2005 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. During these deployments, he flew over 20 missions as a flight surgeon and performed over 150 combat surgeries as an orthopedic surgeon. He received many awards for his contributions and conduct during those tours of duty.
Now a lieutenant colonel and surgeon in the Air Force Reserve, he serves as an independent contractor having filled critical needs at Ft. Belvoir, Va., as well as Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. His civilian service to the military during this time has included caring for military members stationed at Arlington National Cemetery, serving as an instructor for the Army’s Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship and serving as an instructor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
In 1983, Brown began his medical career as a research assistant for the National Institutes of Health. He received a Pew Medical Fellowship in 1989 at Rockefeller University in New York—one of the first Pew Medical Fellowships ever granted from the Midwest. He later was a team physician for the Denver Public Schools, varsity athletics at the University of Colorado, the University of Denver, the University of Iowa, the Colorado Foxes, the Tucson Sidewinders and the Chicago White Sox.
Brown has held membership in many professional organizations, including The American Medical Association, The Missouri State Medical Society, Orthopedics Overseas, The American Association for the Advancement of Science, The New York Academy of Science, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine. He is the author of many publications and has made numerous presentations on genetics as it relates to obesity, surgical techniques and sports injuries. He is board certified in orthopedic surgery, specializing in arthroscopic surgery and fracture care.
Brown earned his B.A. in molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Colorado in 1986. While in college, Brown volunteered his time in the emergency room, with the nonprofit organization Kids’ Friends, and to children in need as a guardian ad litem in the Boulder County courts.
He received his M.D. in 1991 at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he received the Department of Surgery Award for the Outstanding Senior. He later completed an internship at the University of Colorado’s Health Sciences Center/Department of Surgery in 1991-92, as well as his residency in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery from 1992-96. In 1998, he completed a sports medicine fellowship at the University of Iowa as well as a research program sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. He is a past recipient of the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine’s Young Investigator Award for his research in knee injuries.
Brown enjoys music, playing guitar and traveling. He resides in Denver, Colo.