Stephanie Pace Brown is the President and CEO of Explore Asheville, leading a team of 25 to attract overnight visitors to Buncombe County, North Carolina. During her tenure, tourism promotion funding increased 250 percent and the DMO was established as an independent non-profit. While serving Alexandria, Virginia in the same capacity, membership increased 40 percent, and visitor spending in the city doubled the growth rate of surrounding municipalities.

Brown directed marketing and public affairs for Mount Vernon, the Home of George Washington, including advertising, media relations, special events and group sales. She has extensive experience in tourism-related marketing and economic research having worked as Research Manager for the Ohio Division of Travel and Tourism and as Director of Customer Research for The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Brown has also served on the US Travel Association Board of Directors. She is on the executive committees of the Asheville Independent Restaurant Association, the Asheville Riverfront Redevelopment Commission, and is a member of the Asheville Regional Airport Authority.