Lowell C. Brown was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and was raised and educated there. His interest in politics first surfaced during high school, when he worked in several Republican campaigns (some won, some lost). After high school Lowell took two years off from his education to serve as a full-time missionary in Guatemala and El Salvador for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the "Church"). In addition to being one of the great formative experiences of his life, Lowell's mission left him with a distaste for wearing white shirts and eating bananas (a staple in that part of the world) that did not subside for at least a decade. He also became fluent in Spanish, a language he loves.

Lowell graduated from the University of Utah with a B.A. in Political Science in 1980. Along the way he devoted a year to serving as the student body president at Utah, which he insists will be his only foray into electoral politics as a candidate. He went on to Law School at Utah, graduating in 1982 and then heading to Los Angeles, where he has practiced law ever since.

Lowell is a partner in Arent Fox LLP, and since 1985 has practiced corporate health law for institutional health care providers. Explaining exactly what "corporate health law" means has always been a challenge for Lowell, partly because most people have little understanding of the inside workings of hospitals and similar institutions. You can find more details about Lowell's professional life on his law firm's web site.

Lowell enjoys community service. He's a member of the Board of Directors of the Venice Family Clinic, the largest free health clinic in the United States, and of the Executive Board of the Western Los Angeles County Council, Boy Scouts of America. Lowell is passionate about Scouting.

Religiously, Lowell likes to describe himself as an active, committed, convinced "Mormon" (a nickname for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). He has served in a number of capacities as a lay minister in that Church, and also loves to spend time with his  friends of other faiths.

Lowell has been married for twenty-five years to Sonja Eddings Brown. Sonja is a former on-air television news reporter and now a media consultant and community activist. Among many other service activities, Sonja has served as a news media specialist for the Church in Southern California, but is now on leave from that assignment. She is not a spokesperson for any organization, including the Church.  Lowell has nothing to do with Sonja's activities in that area and is decidedly not an official spokesman for the Church or anyone else. He's just a member of the Church with lots of opinions. In other words, the views expressed here are Lowell's own.

Together Lowell and Sonja have three children, two sons and a daughter, ages 20, 16, and 9. Like his blogging partner John Schroeder, Lowell is an experienced blogger, if having been one since June 2004 counts as "experienced." The Hedgehog Blog is his first blog. Someday he'd like to write a book. Lowell also loves intercollegiate athletics, and closely follows the fortunes of his beloved University of Utah Utes. He's always happy when reading one of the works of Charles Dickens or watching the Boston Red Sox play.

August 17, 2006 update:  When this blog began, Lowell was not committed to any presidential candidate, In mid-August 2006, he decided to support Mitt Romney. Even so, the views expressed here are still Lowell's own; he has no position with, and receives no compensation, from any government office-holder, political figure, or organization, including Mitt Romney, the Commonwealth PAC, or the Romney for President campaign.  It remains Lowell's goal, in posting here, to shed light on the issue of religion in presidential politics, particularly as that issue plays out in the 2008 election cycle.

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