Kristen J. Brennand, PhD, Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry, has been accepted as a Fellow in the 2025-2026 Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM) Program.
ELAM is a program of the Institute for Women's Health and Leadership at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia. It is a year-long, part-time fellowship for women faculty in schools of medicine, dentistry, public health, and pharmacy.
The program is dedicated to developing the professional and personal skills required to lead and manage in today's complex health care environment, with special attention to the unique challenges facing women in leadership positions. Brennand and the other fellows were chosen through a competitive application process.
Brennand’s research combines expertise in genetics, neuroscience, and stem cells to identify the mechanisms that underlie brain disease. Her team pioneered a new approach to studying brain diseases, establishing that genetic predisposition to psychiatric disorders ranging from schizophrenia to autism spectrum disorder can be modeled using patient-specific human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs).
Their work has uncovered biological roots of human brain disease and has been recognized by many foundations and societies for her outstanding scientific contributions.
Brennand was honored with the 2018 Maltz Prize for Innovative and Promising Schizophrenia Research by NARSAD and the 2022 Daniel H. Efron Research Award by the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
She was named a Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Scientific Council Member in 2019, a member of American College of Neuropsychopharmacology in 2020, a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering in 2022, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada in 2024.