Rate My Professor Brenna Renn

Brenna Renn, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she joined the faculty in 2020. She earned her PhD in clinical psychology with an emphasis in geropsychology from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs in 2016. Prior to her doctoral training, she completed an internship specializing in geriatric mental health and health psychology at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Following her PhD, Renn undertook a two-year National Institute of Mental Health-funded T32 postdoctoral fellowship in geriatric mental health services research at the University of Washington School of Medicine from 2016 to 2018. She then served as faculty at the University of Washington School of Medicine for two years before moving to UNLV. She maintains an affiliate faculty position as Clinical Assistant Professor in the University of Washington Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, fostering ongoing collaborations.

As a clinical geropsychologist, Brenna Renn specializes in behavioral interventions for older adults, particularly in the context of depression, chronic disease, health promotion, and integrated primary care behavioral health. Her research aims to enhance access to evidence-based psychological treatments by improving their reach through integrated primary care and digital platforms; refining usability for traditionally underserved groups including low-income, rural-dwelling older adults, and ethnic or racial minorities; and developing innovative strategies to expand the behavioral health workforce. Renn is committed to training the next generation of geropsychologists and mental health providers in interdisciplinary and integrated care environments. She serves as an early career Associate Editorial Board Member for the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and was elected to the executive board of the American Psychological Association's Society of Clinical Geropsychology. Notable awards include the William Morris Award for Excellence in Scholarship from UNLV's College of Liberal Arts, the 2021 UNLV Libraries Research Impact Challenge, and a Developmental Research Project grant from Nevada INBRE funded by the National Institutes of Health. Key publications encompass 'The bidirectional relationship of depression and diabetes: a systematic review' (2011, Clinical Psychology Review), 'By the numbers: ratings and utilization of behavioral health mobile applications' (2019, NPJ Digital Medicine), 'Use of human-centered design to improve implementation of evidence-based psychotherapies in low-resource communities: protocol for studies applying a framework to assess usability' (2019, JMIR Research Protocols), and 'Assessing the usability of complex psychosocial interventions: The Intervention Usability Scale' (2021, Implementation Research and Practice).