Dr. Patricia Stocking Brown was born on April 25, 1942 in Cadillac, Michigan. Her collection file and papers reveal that she was the first female professor of the sciences at Siena College as well as a historian of women in science, a feminist, and advocate for breast cancer research. Dr. Brown's specialty was in zoology, especially the endocrinology and kinesiology of amphibians.

Dr. Brown earned her bachelor's degree, master's degree, and PhD in Zoology from the University of Michigan in 1963, 1966, and 1968 respectively. In 1969, Dr. Brown became a professor of Biology at Siena College where she was head of the department from 1984-1986 and 1988-1991. Throughout her career, Dr. Brown was the recipient of several fellowships and research grants, as well as an active member of groups such as the American Society of Zoologists, the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, the Endocrine Society, and the Association of Women in Science. Dr. Brown also published numerous papers regarding amphibians, often with her husband, Dr. Stephen C. Brown, who was a professor of Biology at the University at Albany.

Outside of her scientific research, Dr. Brown was a historian and advocate of women in science. Her projects included researching married biologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, developing exhibitions of said female biologists, and publishing articles on women herpetologists and ichthyologists. Dr. Brown also became an advocate of breast cancer research after her own diagnosis. From 1997-2004, she was the founder and co-president of the Capital Region Action Against Breast Cancer (CRAAB!), which provides support and information for those diagnosed with breast cancer and their care givers, and also co-founded the New York State Breast Cancer Network, a coalition of grassroots breast cancer groups which held the inaugural Breast Cancer Advocacy Day in 1999.

Dr. Brown lived in Altamont, New York and died at home in 2004 of breast cancer. In 2008 donors from the Women's Studies and Biology Departments established The Patricia Stocking Brown Fund for Feminist Social Justice Research in University Libraries at the University of Albany. This award supports and promotes graduate and undergraduate student research in feminist social justice through use of collections in the University at Albany M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives.