Congratulations to Will Bryson and Brenna Renn, our new Geriatric Mental Health Services Research Fellows! The NIMH-funded T-32 research training program, co-directed by Stephen Thielke and Pat Aréan, focuses on mental health research in geriatrics and aging in diverse community and health care settings.

Will is a geriatric psychiatrist who recently completed psychiatry residency training and the clinical geriatric psychiatry fellowship with our Department. He has a Masterʼs of Public Health in epidemiology and biostatistics from Oregon Health and Sciences University and has published articles in computational astrophysics, addiction pharmacoeconomics, ECT for depression in Parkinsonʼs disease, and smoking in older adults. His current research interests include public health implications of the criminal justice system, and systems to deliver correctional and transitional healthcare services.

Brenna is a clinical geropsychologist from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. For her dissertation, she designed, delivered, and evaluated behavioral interventions to improve diabetes management among low-income older adults with comorbid depression. She is not new to Seattle or UW, having worked with Suzanne Craft as a research coordinator at VA Puget Sound where she coordinated studies investigating the glucoregulatory system in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Brenna will be developing targeted assessments and treatments for depression and social isolation using digital technology.