Brandon came to CNS from The Santa Barbara Independent newspaper where he worked as a staff writer for three years, often covering issues of education and science. Brandon has a PhD from the English Department at UCSB. His dissertation touched on science and technology studies by focusing on the conceptualization of “intelligence” in the twentieth century, as human intelligence became an established domain of psychological study beginning with the IQ test. While at UCSB he taught writing and literature courses, and he worked on the Thoreau Project at UCSB's Davidson Library.

In his role as CNS Education and Outreach Coordinator, Brandon assists the Director of Education in the planning, design, organization, and implementation of all aspects of the CNS Education and Outreach program, including: internal education programs for CNS participants, especially undergraduate interns, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers; public outreach programs addressing campus, local, national, and international audiences; program evaluation; and publicity programs.