Dr. Bray is a dedicated Scientific Researcher, Educator, Holistic Health Clinician (Integrative Nutrition Health Coach), and advocate. Dr. Bray’s training includes a PhD in Biomedical Sciences & Neuroscience and postdoctoral training in Complementary and Integrative Health and Eating Disorders funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH).
Her graduate work focused on the neurobiological underpinnings that enable stress hormones (cortisol) to alter reward neurotransmission and salience in healthy conditions (enabling stress to enhance motivation, focus, and drive) and in amphetamine withdrawal (enabling stress to prompt relapse)(Bray et al., 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020).
Her postdoctoral work focused on environmental, clinical, and neurobiological factors associated with eating disorders (Bray et al., 2022a, 2022b, 2023, 2021, 2024, 2025), which prompted her to found the NourishED Research Foundation (NRFi, www.nourishedrfi.org), a 501(c)(3) organization that uses research to highlight and change the social justice factors that often underpin mental health disparities.
In addition to founding and directing NRFi, Dr. Bray is a core faculty member in the National University of Natural Medicine (NUNM)’s Clinical Research MS program and Building Research across InterDisciplinary Gaps (BRIDG) program and a research faculty at NUNM’s Helfgott Research Institute. She is also an Associate Adjunct Professor at Naropa University’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling MS Program and in the Psychology Department and Psychedelic Studies programs. Dr. Bray run a successful integrative nutrition and holistic health practice(www.brennabray.com) and writes a holistic health column for AboutBoulder.com.
Dr. Bray is also an avid ultra-marathon mountain trail runner with longstanding practices of yoga, meditation, and indigenous exploration. Her many activities and engagements are fueled by her passion for making health information and self-efficacy accessible to everyone.
Founder, Director, CEO, & PI | NourishED Research Foundation (NRFi) Core Faculty | National University of Natural MedicineResearch Associate | Helfgott Research InstituteAdjunct Associate Professor | Naropa University+1 206.819.9647 | [email protected] | www.nourishedrfi.orghttps://www.linkedin.com/in/brenna-bray-39891914/
In a 2-hour podcast debut, NRFi Founder and CEO, Brenna Bray, PhD, shares her experience of navigating bulimia nervosa in a Western Medical system, the stigmatization, invalidation, and lack of empowerment she perceived, and the way unconditional love ultimately enabled her journey of transformation, growth, and healing through validation, self-efficacy, self-empowerment, compassion, and self-love.
"It opened up this shift from thinking about what other people thought about me to [thinking about] what I thought about me and how I felt about me. ...and for me, that's a really powerful space to be in. That's where the change can happen. Because ultimately, it doesn't matter what other people think about me. The only thing that really matters is what I think about me because that's the only thing I have the power to change. ...So when I got there, then everything just started clicking in so fast," Dr. Bray shares.
Dr. Bray also shares how her vocation and avocation in binge eating disorder research "chose her," and how she views her research career as an opportunity to serve the populations she feels called to represent. She shares some of her more startling recent research findings on binge eating disorder and the social justice and public health policy issues that enable the environment in which binge eating disorder exists, prompting her to found NRFi in 2024.
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The NourishED Research Foundation (NRFi) is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charitable organization (tax ID number: 99-2669462) under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donations are tax-deducatble as allowed by law.
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