Matsalyn Brown has served as the assistant to the dean at the University of Iowa Henry B. Tippie College of Business for the last 20 years. She was born in Vientiane, Laos and came to Iowa as a part of former Governor Robert D. Ray’s program to bring Southeast Asians to Iowa following the end of the U.S.-Vietnam War. She grew up in Des Moines and attended the University of Iowa where she received B.A. in Anthropology and Asian Studies in 1997.

Matsalyn serves on the board of the Tai Studies Center (TSC), an organization whose mission includes preserving the Tai culture, research and publishing Tai history and literature, and promoting the common welfare and well-being of Tai people in northwest Vietnam, where her family originated from before it became a part of Vietnam, through Aid to Tai People (ATTP), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) created under the non-profit status of the Tai Studies Center.

At the University of Iowa, Matsalyn served on Staff Council from Fall 2019 to Spring 2022. She was an Executive Committee Member at-large from 2021-2022 and also served as co-chair of its DEI Committee from Fall 2020 to Spring 2022.