Sanford “Sandy” Brown is one of the world’s most prolific and trusted pilgrimage guidebook authors. A long-distance walker and ordained minister from Seattle, Washington, Sandy planned his 2008 trek on the Camino de Santiago and since then has walked or biked over 19,000 kilometers on pilgrim trails in Europe and the US.

He earned his undergraduate degree in medieval history at the University of Washington in Seattle, his MDiv at Garrett Theological Seminary, which honored him in 2005 as Distinguished Alumnus, and his doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary in gender, sexuality and spirituality. He was executive director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle and served as senior pastor of Seattle’s historic First United Methodist Church.

Sandy has been chosen as featured speaker at key pilgrim trekking conferences sponsored by the Confraternity of Pilgrims to Rome (London 2023), the Canadian Company of Pilgrims and American Pilgrims on the Camino (Vancouver BC, May 2025), and the Confraternity of St James (the 2021 Candace Stoors Lecturer). In 2023 he was given the Honor Award by the European Association of Francigena Ways (AEVF) for his contributions to the development of the Via Francigena.

Since 2018 Sandy has been dealing with the progressive motor neurone disease Primary Lateral Sclerosis, which has taken away his ability to communicate through speech. He maintains a very limited public speaking schedule using an AI-cloned voice while continuing to write, explore, lead walking groups, and enjoy the great outdoors.

Sandy and his wife, Theresa Elliott, share time between their homes in Italy and the U.S.