Britney G. Brinkman, PhD, is being recognized with this APA Citizen Psychologist Presidential Citation for her engagement and leadership in social justice organizations to improve the overall health and well-being of Black girls and women in the Pittsburgh area.
Brinkman has been instrumental in developing the Gwendolyn J. Elliott Institute, an interprofessional institution within “Gwen’s Girls”, an organization serving Black girls and young women in Pittsburgh since 2002. This growth has allowed the agency to collaborate on key research projects designed to enhance the quality of services of Gwen’s Girls participants. Brinkman’s team’s project ‘Redefining Resilience and Reframing Resistance: Evaluation of a Violence Prevention and Health Promotion Empowerment Program for Black Girls’ is developing curriculum for an empowerment-based after school program for high school girls. As Co-Director of the ‘See the Best in Me” Photovoice Project, Brinkman’s team conducted a pilot project to train participants at Gwen’s Girls in Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR). The goal of the project was to engage girls in participatory research to challenge stereotypes about Black girls. Brinkman also served on the planning committee for the first annual Equity Summit hosted by Gwen’s Girls, an event which brought together scholars, policy makers, and service providers to examine issues facing Black girls in Western Pennsylvania.
Brinkman also helped develop the Black Girls Equity Alliance to eradicate inequities affecting Black Girls in Allegheny County. Their mission is accomplished by informing providers, communities and systems about best practices for supporting Black girls. She serves as the coordinator for the Health and Wellness working group and is actively involved in the Education working group, helping to examine Black girls’ access to sex education and reproductive health care. Brinkman has contributed her expertise regarding sexual harassment and identity-based bullying in schools to an initiative designed to address Black girls’ experiences of sexual harassment. As part of this work, she drafted an open letter to the Pittsburgh Public School district asking them to collaborate on efforts to more effectively prevent and respond to sexual harassment and spoke at a public hearing that was profiled in various news outlets.
Brinkman has served on the Board of Directors for Pittsburgh Action Against Rape since 2014 and is currently the Board President. She was a member of the Board of Directors for Hope Grows from 2011-13, a non-profit service-oriented organization that provides restorative care through the use of support and healing gardens to those who are coping with the daily stress of providing ongoing care for a loved one.
Brinkman received her PhD in Counseling Psychology in 2009 and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from Colorado State University. She served on the faculty of Chatham University from 2009-18, rising to the rank of associate professor. She is currently an associate professor in the Clinical-Community PsyD program at Point Park University. In the area of Psychology of Gender and Social Justice, Brinkman has a particular interest in the lives of adolescent girls and the importance of designing, implementing and evaluating prevention and early intervention programs. She is a licensed psychologist in Pennsylvania and a member of APA Divisions 9, 17, 35 and 51.