Dr. Brennan is engaged in clinical research at UCSF in the Department of Surgery, Division of Transplantation. She serves as the Nurse Researcher responsible for the coordination of the PARADIGM study, funded by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).

In addition, Dr. Brennan is an Adjunct Professor at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland, California where she has served as the Paul C. Samson Clinical Professorial Chair. Dr. Brennan has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide in Australia and a core faculty member of the UCSF Centre for Evidence-Based Patient and Family Care. Her research interests include health policy issues related to access to care, particularly involving acuity-based models of care delivery with a specific interest in organ allocation and the application of genetic and genomic technologies in clinical practice.

In addition, Dr. Brennan has assessed the outcomes of simulation and immersive learning through inter-professional education including the use of VR as an adjunct to difficult to obtain clinical experiences.

She was appointed as an NIH Faculty Champion in Genetics and Genomics, the goal of which is to provide leadership in curriculum integration of genetics and genomics. She served as a member of the editorial board of the NIH Genetics/Genomics Competency Center (G2C2) and also served on the Sutter Health Personalized Medicine Initiative Task Force.

Dr. Brennan has been recognized in her role as an educator locally being awarded the Faculty of the Year Award at Samuel Merritt University and nationally as an AACN Novice Faculty Award nominee. She is a Daisy Faculty Award Recipient recognizing her exceptional impact on nursing education.

Prior to entering academic education Dr. Brennan spent over 20 years as a clinical specialist, outreach director, and clinical manager for the UCSF Transplant Division, where she had administrative responsibilities for clinical care and inter-professional research endeavors.

Dr. Brennan has been recognized as a Distinguished Practitioner and Fellow in the National Academies of Practice and recently served as an Inaugural Fellow in AACN’s Faculty Policy Intensive. She has recently been appointed to the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC) Research Advisory Committee.