Getting to Know Me

Ms. Bridget A. Brownell

I grew up on the East Coast.  By the age of seventeen I had lived in Buffalo, New York, Rhode Island and Connecticut.  I attended a small, private college in upstate New York, Ithaca College.  I have continually demonstrated my commitment to individuals and community health issues and further developed my leadership abilities, professional knowledge, and experience since graduating with a Bachelors of Science degree from Ithaca College and earning teaching credentials in New York and California. 

I moved to California after graduating (solely for the sun) and have been teaching high school health education classes every semester since that time.  Additionally, I am a department chair and have severed as a mentor, a master teacher and a Lead Teacher at Taft High School.  I have also been actively involved in almost every aspect of campus life.  For example, I have served on the Leadership Team, Policy Council, Booster Club/PTA, School Safety Committee, Instructional Leadership Team and I have been a Passport to Reading Volunteer.  I established community links by initiating a community service learning project (now used District-wide) and utilizing various speakers; I became an HIV/AIDS district trainer and have been a presenter at professional development conferences.  In addition, I actively facilitate diversity by leading the Genders and Sexualities Alliance (GSA).  I also have organized health-promoting activities.  For example, I was Taft High School’s Team Coordinator for the A.P.L.A.’s AIDS Walk and the American Cancer Society’s Breast Cancer Walk.  And I also sponsor of Taft's Sex Squad modeled after UCLA's Sex Squad.  I have worked with high-risk young men on campus and was the 2014 Class sponsor.  Life lesson, don't ever volunteer to be a class sponsor.  :)

After six years of teaching high school, I choose to expand my undergraduate theoretical and methodological foundations through UCLA’s Community Health Science (CHS) graduate program.  I earned my Master’s in Public Health (MPH) in 2005.  During this two- year program, I obtained an internship with Family Health International (FHI) and worked in Malawi, Africa on HIV/AIDS issues.  Although this is the only time I have worked on health issues overseas, I spent six months in Australia as part of a study abroad program during my undergraduate years and I have traveled extensively during my summer vacations.  My travels include:  Vietnam, China, Tibet, Japan, all of Western Europe, all 50 states, Canada, Mexico, and a second trip to Africa.  In 2009, I began a new type adventure...My husband and I were married.  In 2014, we purchase our first single family home and in July of 2016, I gave birth to Topanga!  In 2018, I gave birth to our 2nd (and for sure last) I.V.F. baby, Keeton.

Earning my Master's from UCLA allowed me to teach for Pierce College as well.  I have been working as an adjunct professor ever since (over 15 years now) while maintaining my full-time position at Taft High School (over 25 years now). 

And finally, my objective as a health educator continues to be - to provide important and accurate information, so students can make critical decisions based on current information and their own morals while challenging them to become more actively involved, empathetic adults.