Unclaimed
Kate Brown
History & Commentary
American politician and author of Plutopia, examining U.S. and Soviet plutonium towns and the environmental and social consequences of nuclear production.
Biography
Katherine Brown (born June 21, 1960) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 38th governor of Oregon from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she served in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1991 to 1997 and the Oregon Senate from 1997 to 2009, including as majority leader from 2003 to 2009. She was elected Oregon Secretary of State in 2008 and re-elected in 2012, became governor in 2015 after John Kitzhaber's resignation, won a 2016 special election to complete that term, and was re-elected in 2018.
Brown is bisexual and was the first openly LGBT person elected to statewide office and the first openly LGBT person elected governor of a U.S. state. She is also the author of Plutopia (2013), which draws on official records and interviews to compare the American and Soviet plutonium towns of Richland and Ozersk and to examine the secrecy, contamination, and community impacts associated with those nuclear sites. By the end of her gubernatorial term she had the lowest approval ratings of any incumbent U.S. governor at that time.
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Books by Kate Brown
Plutopia
Plutopia draws on official records and dozens of interviews to compare Richland, Washington, and Ozersk, Russia—the first two cities to produce plutonium—and explains how secretive, subsidized atomic towns concealed pollution and accidents. Brown reports that the Hanford and Maiak plants each released at least 200 million curies of radioactive isotopes over four decades—equaling four Chernobyls—and traces resulting contamination and health impacts on surrounding lands and communities.