Breanna is a second year student in the Masters of Science in Social Work program in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work here at UT. She is originally from Benbrook, Texas, a small town outside of Fort Worth. She graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2017 with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology and moved to Charleston, SC shortly afterwards. In Charleston, she took a research assistant position in the Project Quit lab at the Medical University of South Carolina in the Addiction Sciences Division. The lab explores different facets of nicotine and marijuana use and the studies she specifically worked on were focused on new interventions for nicotine use disorder. During her undergraduate career and time at the Medical University of South Carolina, Breanna had the opportunity to work on publications and create posters for presentations at conferences focused on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, sleep disorders, the Marchman Court, interventions for nicotine use disorder, and new methods for measuring nicotine use. While in Charleston, Breanna volunteered with People Against Rape (PAR), the local sexual assault center. Her main role at PAR was to take hotline calls and perform hospital accompaniments. She also tabled for PAR at community events, participated in their Bar Outreach Program, and was the Chairperson for the Sexual Assault Awareness Month Planning Committee in 2018. Later, she began to work part-time for PAR as a staff-back up and started supervising new volunteers on their first hospital accompaniments and acted as an extra support for both staff and volunteers. Breanna entered the Master of Science in Social Work program in the fall of 2019. She worked at the YMCA of Austin as the Program Coordinator for Texas Youth and Government during the 2019-2020 school year. She currently is a Graduate Assistant in the Office of Professional Development. In her free time, Breanna enjoys reading and spending time with her cats and partner.
