Faculty Profile

Brandi Barnes is a research scientist at the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI). Her primary role is to work with faculty, administration, and external stakeholders to identify, expand, and support new initiatives aimed at reducing health disparities. She achieves this by facilitating collaborative research proposals and by organizing campus and community events, programs, and workshops. Dr. Barnes also serves as a program coordinator for the Community-Academic Scholars Initiative, where she mentors undergraduates during a ten-week community-based research experience. In addition, she works with the Health Sciences Data Analytics Core at IHSI to collect and analyze data for strategic planning.

Brandi Barnes has a background in health promotion and health education program implementation and evaluation from her prior experience at a behavioral health treatment and research center. She earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her doctoral degree is in community health with a specialization in health psychology. Her research areas of interest include preventing stigma in accessing mental health care services and barriers to treatment.