Brandon Barksdale
Doctoral Student
About
Hailing from Chicago's West Side, Brandon Barksdale seeks to educate, advocate, and empower underserved communities and populations. Barksdale received his undergraduate degree in psychology from UIC. He graduated with an MSW from the Jane Addams College of Social Work at UIC, where he concentrated in mental health and Integrative Behavioral Health, focusing on evidence-based practices and tools working with parents/guardians and their children struggling with mental health.
Before and while working on his bachelor's degree, Barksdale worked as an emergency medical technician (EMT) and as a healthcare worker in emergency departments and behavioral health units, culminating after the 2020 pandemic, where he switched to working as a social worker and case manager in the North Side neighborhoods of Chicago. Barksdale also worked in the UIC College of Medicine biophysics and physiology laboratory and the Brain Plasticity Lab in UIC's College of Applied Health Sciences. While completing his MSW, Barksdale worked as a therapist, focusing on children and families. He created “It takes a Village”, a mutual aid group therapy model for parents in the South Side neighborhoods of Chicago centered around parent management training, resource linkage, and advocacy. Barksdale also assisted in studying life experiences and well-being in adults within UIC's School of Public Health, researching the importance of social status’s buffering effects against stressors in middle-aged adults.
Barksdale works as a therapist, working with Black and Brown clients throughout Chicago, providing clinical, evidence-based interventions and community support to underserved populations. Through the PhD program at Jane Addams College of Social Work, he is interested in researching improving cultural humility and efficacy of mental health interventions for families in underserved urban communities.