Brenda Countz

For most of the 1980s, Brenda Countz worked in the U.S. House of Representatives as an official reporter, producing verbatim transcripts of committee meetings, hearing testimony, and official proceedings on the House Floor. Countz was born at Freedmen’s Hospital—now Howard University Hospital—not far from Capitol Hill. Her father, George Countz, worked for the U.S. Post Office, while her mother, Blanche Countz, was a stay-at-home mom. Countz came from a musical family and was a skilled pianist and typist. She was raised in the Trinidad neighborhood in Northeast Washington, DC, and attended local public schools. After graduating from Eastern High School in Washington, DC, in 1966, Countz looked for immediate employment. She was offered a position in the typing pool at the Department of Commerce but rejected it because of the low pay. Upon the suggestion of her mother, Countz enrolled at the American Stenotype Institute of Washington where she graduated in 18 months.

Countz used her stenography skills to find employment with the District of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicles. For a year, she covered driver’s license revocation hearings and traffic fatality hearings. In 1969, Countz took a position at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Later realizing the intense physical and emotional toll that legal hearings were taking on her, Countz resigned and stepped away from reporting to raise her two children. In 1974, Countz took a position as a freelance court reporter. Quickly gaining a reputation for the quality of her work, Countz heard of an opening as an official reporter in the House of Representatives. After discussing it with her family, Countz applied. In 1981, she was hired as an official reporter.

Countz spent most of the next decade working on Capitol Hill, appearing in official documents under her married name, Brenda Pearson. Although she had done freelance work for the U.S. Senate, Countz had to adapt to the hectic pace of the House. Each day, she recorded testimony in hearings held by committees and subcommittees. She learned strategies for dealing with Members who talked over one another and worked to memorize the face of each Member.

Countz became one of the most proficient reporters working for the House. Official reporters were rewarded based on the number of pages of transcripts they produced. In 1984, Countz produced the top number of transcript pages, which led to an assignment to a field hearing to Hawaii. In addition, she earned the opportunity to report President Ronald Reagan’s State of the Union Address. On February 8, 1985, Countz made history as the first African-American woman to serve as an official reporter for the State of the Union Address.

Shortly after reporting the State of the Union Address, Countz stepped away from her full-time position as an official reporter to pursue freelance work. In that capacity, she remained in Washington, DC, and continued to frequently report for the House. In addition to her work for the House, Countz helped caption news broadcasts and a commencement address given by President William J. Clinton at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. She later relocated to Southern California, where she currently resides.