Brandee Izquierdo

PROFILE

Brandee Izquierdo, Ph.D., oversees Pew’s behavioral health portfolio, which includes the substance use prevention and treatment initiative and the suicide risk reduction project. In this role, she leads researchers and advocates working at the state and federal levels to expand access to evidence-based treatment for substance use disorders and improve suicide prevention interventions in hospitals and health systems.

Before joining Pew, Izquierdo held several leadership roles, including executive director of the Stop the Addiction Fatality Epidemic Project and director of advocacy and outreach at Faces & Voices of Recovery. She also served as the associate director of special populations with Behavioral Health System Baltimore and as director of consumer affairs for Maryland’s Behavioral Health Administration. This career path—which focused on expanding access to behavioral health and recovery services while ensuring that communities are educated and able to cultivate equitable culturally inclusive care—has been driven by Izquierdo’s professional knowledge of behavioral health services and personal lived expertise as a woman in recovery.

Izquierdo holds a bachelor’s degree in government and public policy, a master’s in public administration, and a doctorate in public administration with a focus on organizational change management within behavioral health and criminal justice systems, all from the University of Baltimore.