October Member Focus: Ashlyn Brown
Member Focus: Dr. Ashlyn Brown - Creating Possibility Through Pain Medicine
This month, AAPM is proud to spotlight Ashlyn Brown, MD, an emerging leader in pain medicine whose commitment to mentorship, innovation, and compassionate patient care is already making an impact within AAPM and beyond.
Dr. Brown is currently a Pain Medicine Fellow at Washington University in St. Louis, following her residency training in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine. As an aspiring interventional pain physician, her clinical interests include neuromodulation, cancer pain, spine interventions, and multidisciplinary approaches that help patients restore function and improve quality of life.
Throughout her training, one question has continually shaped the way Dr. Brown approaches medicine: How can we do this better?
That mindset extends from the care she provides to patients to the programs and opportunities she creates for other trainees. Within AAPM, Dr. Brown leads the Resident Ambassador cohort and has played an important role in developing its mentorship initiative, helping connect residents interested in pain medicine with opportunities for guidance, professional development, and greater involvement in the field.
“I’ve always been drawn to the underdog—to the people and challenges others may have counted out. Chronic pain rarely comes with easy wins, but helping someone find possibility where they may have started to lose hope is what makes this work meaningful to me.”
Her commitment to mentorship began long before medical school. For more than a decade before entering medicine, Dr. Brown coached and mentored African American youth—an experience that continues to influence her approach to leadership today. She believes leadership is less about titles and more about creating opportunities for others to grow, succeed, and discover what they are capable of achieving.
Alongside her clinical training, Dr. Brown has contributed to peer-reviewed research, presented at national conferences, and held leadership roles within organizations including AAPM, NANS, and ASRA. Across these experiences, she has continued to pursue opportunities that bring together clinical excellence, innovation, education, and professional development.
Looking ahead, Dr. Brown hopes to advance pain medicine through thoughtful clinical care, innovation, and collaboration while developing solutions that improve the experiences of both patients and healthcare professionals. Her commitment to asking how the field can do better—and then helping build those solutions—reflects the next generation of leadership in pain medicine.
We are proud to feature Dr. Ashlyn Brown as October’s Member Focus and grateful for the leadership and energy she brings to AAPM, its Resident Ambassador Program, and Innovation Challenge.
Nominate a fellow AAPM member who exemplifies our mission to advance multidisciplinary pain care innovation, education, advocacy, and research by completing the nomination form here.