Brenda is the Associate Dean of Library Services at UMKC Libraries at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). Brenda received her bachelor’s in finance from California State University, Northridge. She also has a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Master of Business Administration from North Carolina State University. She is a member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals (AHIP) at the Distinguished level. Brenda is the current President of the Medical Library Association (MLA). Brenda has served in a variety of capacities over the last 16 years of her membership of MLA. In 2021, Brenda was awarded the MLA President’s Award, in 2022 she was a recipient of the NNLM Emerging Leader Award Region 3, and she is the recipient of the 2023 Bernice M. Hetzner Award for Excellence in Academic Health Science Librarianship from the Mid-Continental Chapter of MLA.

Brenda loves working and building relationships with students, faculty, researchers, and the community. She has received several NNLM grants to collaborate and work on outreach projects to promote patient and consumer health education resources totaling more than $100,000. Her background is in health sciences librarianship with emphases in outreach, information literacy, DEI, health literacy, research, and evidence-based practice. She recently co-authored a book chapter, “Latinx Communities and Health Literacy during COVID-19” in Vardell and Charbonneau’s book, Health Literacy and Libraries. She is also an adjunct instructor at Emporia State University.