Brandy joined the Initiative from Spelman College, where she graduated in May 2016 with a BA in Economics. As an undergraduate, Brandy spent time as a research assistant, mentor, and peer tutor in economics. She also served as president of Spelman’s chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority.

Additionally, Brandy held internships with The City of Atlanta, The Coca-Cola Company, General Electric, the Spelman Endowment Office, and Columbia Business School. She is an active member of Omicron Delta Epsilon International Honors Society in Economics and Phi Beta Kappa Society.

Bio

Brandy Edmondson received her PhD from the Work and Organizations department at the Carlson School of Management (University of Minnesota) in 2023. She was a Visiting Fellow at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Brandy has joined the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Brandy is honored to have been a PhDEI Fellow from 2016–2018. She considers herself to be an interdisciplinary scholar—her research spans microeconomics, organizational behavior, human resources, and sociology. Brandy’s main research goals are to use her interdisciplinary training to find novel ways to test for the presence of discrimination in the workplace, identify the underlying mechanisms that lead to discrimination, and provide unique insights into implications for organizational policies aimed at mitigating workplace discrimination.

“I chose to join the PhD Excellence Initiative because I want to be a knowledge producer and a difference maker for disadvantaged communities, and I believe that economic research is the key to helping those in need. […] I am certain that at the completion of my time in the Initiative, I will have the skills needed to fulfill my dreams of earning a PhD and using my research to help others.”