Brandon Respress, PhD, APRN, MPH, MSN, PMHNP-BC

Respress earned her PhD, post-master’s certificate in psychiatric mental health, and BS degrees in nursing at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. Prior to returning to Case for her doctoral education, Respress earned dual master’s degrees at The Ohio State University. There she received her MSN with the specialty of pediatric nurse practitioner and an MPH with a concentration in health services management and policy. Respress completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Michigan (UM) School of Nursing and the Program for Research on Black Americans at the Institute for Social Research at UM. The combined fellowships emphasized competencies and principles of community-based participatory research, race, culture, research design, and complex survey analyses. Her research uses the social determinants of health framework to examine the effects of prejudice, discrimination, and racism on adolescent mental health outcomes, and to understand health and educational disparities.

Respress formally sat on the National Advisory Council for Nurse Education and Practice, is a fellow alumnus of the SAMHSA Ethnic Minority Fellowship Program, and currently serves as a faculty associate for the Center for African American Studies. In addition to her academic work, she continues to show her dedication to her community and the well-being of youth locally, nationally, and globally. Respress has been in leadership positions as a provider and coordinator of health care services in Ghana, West Africa, and Kuxeb, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Respress also served as a council member on the National Advisory Council for Nurse Education and Practice from 2007–11, directly influencing policies for Title VII and Title VIII funding. Currently, she is working as a psychiatric nurse practitioner at her practice, Tolcasu Mental Health and Wellness, in Dallas, Texas, and virtually in Sheridan, Wyoming, where she sees clients for therapy and medication management.