Dr. Jennifer Brown has served children and Macon County for decades as a pediatrician and as a founding member of KIDS Place. On Feb. 3, she was awarded Citizen of the Year from the Franklin Chamber of Commerce.
Each year the Franklin Chamber of Commerce selects a citizen of the year “to honor someone who represents the very best of our community,” said Bryson Burt, who introduced the winner this year. The chamber also awarded the Duke Citizenship and Service, Youth Citizenship and Club/Organization of the Year awards during the ceremony at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts.
Burt shared the story of Brown treating Maggie Corbin for a routine checkup, refusing to reschedule an exam even in a power outage and as a result identifying a rare and aggressive form of cancer in Corbin’s eye. Corbin was able to make a full recovery due to the early diagnosis.
“What makes this even more remarkable is that this story is not unique,” Burt said. “This individual has spent their entire life making choices like this, stepping in when others step back, paying attention when others might overlook and always choosing to act when it matters most.”
Burt said Brown’s commitment to doing what is right ensured that when the chamber considered the 2026 nominations, the decision was unanimous in favor of Brown.
“This person didn’t just meet the standard, they set it,” he said.
In an interview with the Press, Brown said she remembers being able to see the tumor in Corbin’s eye, saying, “She’s just a baby, but that day there were no lights overhead. Her pupils were big and I was able to see inside. I was able to see the tumor. Which is just God’s grace again, literally. I’ve looked in lots and lots of eyes, but it’s estimated that a pediatrician may see one of those in a lifetime.”
Brown has been involved in pediatrics since she earned her medical degree in 1978, going on to a three-year residency in pediatrics with North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem. She practiced in Fort Pierce, Florida, until 1983 before moving to Franklin.
Brown served at Riverview Family Practice in Franklin, Sylva Pediatric Associates in Sylva, the Clay County Health Department in Hayesville and the Children’s Developmental Services Agency in Cullowhee before acting as a founding member of KIDS Place and its first board chair in 1991.
Brown has served consistently with the nonprofit and now serves as a medical director and child medical examiner for Child Medical Collaborative, which provides child medical assessments for a collection of centers including KIDS Place when allegations of abuse have been made. Even as a general pediatrician, Brown said she interacted with abused children but has since moved into focusing entirely on abused children.
“Children are a precious gift. The Lord has great love for children and we see that in the scripture. I consider it a great honor to be able to love children along with him,” Brown said. “They are real people from the time they’re very small. When a kid comes in here and they’re only this tall I get on my knees and get at their eye level and talk to them … they are worthy of respect as important human beings from the very beginning.”
Brown said KIDS Place has grown a lot since 1991, moving from an office above People’s (now Outdoor 76), to its old building downtown and finally moving to its new location on Georgia Road. The nonprofit now has the ability to serve more children more effectively, adding therapy and dedicated space for sessions. KIDS Place has built relationships with other nonprofits, specifically law enforcement and the Department of Social Services to better serve children in the community.
Some of these relationships are built through education, which has been an important part of Brown’s work at KIDS Place. In addition to teaching law enforcement agencies and the general public on the prevention, identification and treatment of abuse, Brown has given instruction statewide and internationally in North Carolina, Macedonia and Korea.
Brown also has plenty of experience as a writer, contributing to a collection of Christian journals and hosting a blog at mercyjourney.com and publishing a children’s book called “Hooray, It’s a Duck Day.” Brown said as she moves closer to retirement she would like to focus more on her writing. She is a member of Discover Church and enjoys spending time with friends.
Brown lives in Franklin with her daughter Rebekah while two other daughters and one son live all across the country. Brown has three grandchildren, with a fourth expected to be born in June.
Brown said Rebekah organized her nomination for the award, securing multiple community members’ letters of recommendation and organizing invitations to several family members for the award while keeping it all a secret from her mother.
“I knew I had to be someplace on that night because she had said ‘keep this date open.’” Brown said. “She was like, ‘Mama, you have to dress so that you look pretty that night.’”
“Several of my friends were there. My sister came from Atlanta … I walked into my kitchen that night and there stood my daughter from Winston-Salem and we have sort of an adopted daughter that lives in Atlanta and the two of them were standing there arranging flowers,” she continued. “They thought it was great fun.”
KIDS Place director Alisa Ashe said, “Dr. Brown was instrumental in starting KIDS Place. As a local pediatrician, she provided a valuable service for children and families in our community … she was also seeing first-hand children going through the system because of abuse and the need to work these cases as a team. She became the catalyst to pull together a multidisciplinary team comprised of Child Protective Services, law enforcement, prosecutors, mental health professionals and others and together they founded KIDS Place in June 1991.”
“It is not common to find physicians willing to take the additional training required to do the specialized medical evaluations to evaluate suspected cases of child abuse. Doing this work is hard on many levels,” she continued. “On behalf of all of us at KIDS Place, congratulations Dr. Brown. Thank you for your long-time dedication, professionalism, compassion and care for the children and families in our community. You have made a tremendous positive impact on the lives of countless children. The world is a better place because of Jennifer Brown, MD.”