Bonita Brown

Bonita J. Brown is an American lawyer and academic administrator who served as the interim president of Northern Kentucky University in 2023.

Life
Brown was raised in Welcome, North Carolina. She earned a B.A. from Wake Forest University in 1995 and J.D. from Wake Forest University School of Law in 1997.

Brown worked as a staff attorney in Washington, D.C. in corporate legal work. In 2001, she returned to North Carolina and joined the staff at Livingstone College as an assistant to its leadership team. She was as the chief of staff at the University of North Texas. Brown was the vice chancellor and chief of staff at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She was an assistant attorney at the Winston-Salem State University. She was later general counsel of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She served as the director of the higher education practice at Education Trust in Washington, D.C.. She later worked for the nonprofit, Achieving the Dream, as its vice president for network engagement. Brown joined Northern Kentucky University (NKU) in May 2019 as its vice president and chief strategy officer. Following Ashish Vaidya's departure in 2022, she was selected as the interim president of NKU in January 2023. Cady Short-Thompson succeeded Brown in October 2023.

Personal life
Brown is married to Wesley Brown. They have a son and daughter.