Brandi Reano is Diné (Navajo) and Kewameh (from Santo Domingo Pueblo) and was raised in the Four Corners area of New Mexico. She graduated from Dartmouth College in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience. Since then, she has worked as a secondary science teacher on the Navajo Reservation and as a Healthy Futures Specialist in Auburn, WA. Currently, she is pursuing her Master of Public Health in Health Systems and Population Health at the University of Washington. She will graduate in the summer of 2023.
Brandi is a highly motivated and ambitious individual committed to addressing the most disparate health inequities that permeate indigenous communities. Her research interests include community based participatory research/tribal participatory research (CBPR/TPR), mental health and suicide prevention, and food sovereignty. Her professional ambitions are to design and improve culturally appropriate mental health services for the Navajo Nation with an emphasis on fostering the sustainability of such services. She enjoys working with Youth, and their families, and hopes to positively affect how they develop relationships with each other and the world around them to build healthy and strong communities for generations to come.
As an intern for UIHI, Brandi intends to develop her skills as a public health practitioner using Indigenous methodologies/frameworks and gain exposure to various public health professions. Although she is unsure of her specific professional path, she is interested in working at the intersections of mental health, community health, and social/behavioral science.
In her free time, Brandi enjoys being outdoors, cooking and finding delicious food, and spending time with family and friends (including her dog Pilot).