Debi Brannan

Dr. Brannan is a first generation college student and was a non-traditional student – she fully understands that work, family, and school balance is important (and has a paper published on this topic).

Research: As an applied psychologist and Portland State University Alumni she had mentored undergraduate and graduate students over the past 18+ years. She was the Journal Editor of Psi Chi International Research Journal for 5.5 years and an associate editor for 3 years. She has conducted research with Johns Hopkins involving victims of domestic violence, as well as worked closely with University of Miami and FEMA on a firefighter cancer initiative. Additionally, as an employee of EY (Ernst & Young) as a Thought Leadership Analyst and Organizational Psychologist she worked on global research studies on transformational leadership and women in tech #womenfastforward . She has also collaborated on numerous community-based studies as well as occupational health studies.

She has run her own research lab for many years and much of her work was on health related behaviors. More specifically, she focused on understanding how positive interactions and social support buffer individuals from stress and negative health behaviors in the workplace and at home. She is particularly interested in work-family-school balance among non-traditional college students. In addition, she collaborated with colleagues from Harvard and University of Miami who were interested in examining home health care aids, walking meetings, and physical and mental health. Her research can be found on the CDC website . Culture has been important to her personally and professionally and she also collected data in Iran, Jordan, and the United States.