Angela L. Brown, MD, grew up on her family’s farm in southern Arkansas. At the farm’s peak, the family and its crew cultivated 1,500 acres of cotton, rice and soybeans and managed more than 120 head of cattle. Watching her grandparents persevere through the demands of farm life, and her parents balance their careers — her mother was a high school business teacher, and her father worked in construction — Brown learned the values of hard work and an “anything is possible” mindset.
The farm operation began in the 1920s, when her maternal grandfather inherited 20 acres of farmland. Growing up on the farm, and because Brown and her mother were both only children, Brown’s maternal grandparents played a large role in shaping the person she has become.