Brennan Rhodes-Bratton

Brennan Rhodes-Bratton—a recipient of the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award—conducting dissertation research to identify and address the role that food practices and dispositions play in the risk of obesity among residents living in a neighborhood undergoing gentrification. During her traineeship in the Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity, she worked as a research assistant in the development of a conceptual framework for the emerging issue of energy insecurity and also led a community-based participatory research project unveiling the lived experience of New York City Housing Authority residents with a PhotoVoice project entitled “Going Beyond the Mold.” Her professional and educational career to-date comprises nearly a decade of experience in public health including research in environmental health, built-environment, nutrition and wellness education, community-based participatory research, health policy analysis, housing insecurity, extensive training in the application of social theory to public health problems, and applied experiences in PhotoVoice and intervention design, implementation, and evaluation. Rhodes-Bratton’s long-term career goal is to become a public health mixed methods researcher with expertise in theoretically-driven research and interventions, doing research grounded in sociological concepts and theories about the social and economic determinants of health and illness.