Brenna Phelps

Brenna Phelps is a Research Scientist I at the Center for Advanced Communications Policy (CACP). She started at the CACP as a student employee in 2020 while completing her BS in psychology at Kennesaw State University, followed by a transition into a Tech Temp position, and finally faculty status in early 2022. Her work centers usability and accessibility research aimed at improving the design and performance of a variety of assistive and diagnostic technologies, increasing accessibility and usability of at-home and point-of-care diagnostic testing. She is passionate about improving the usability and accessibility of systems and products to ensure optimized user experiences, especially for vulnerable populations such as older adults and those with cognitive or physical limitations.

As a task lead for the CACP's HomeLab team, Brenna performs human factors evaluations of COVID-19 diagnostic tests and other health related technologies for both home and clinical use. These evaluations are part of the NIH-funded initiative, the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx®), a collaboration between Emory University, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and Georgia Tech, which has developed into a growing program of research to evaluate diagnostic tests and support the efforts to get these products to market.

She has also worked with the Cognitive Empowerment Program (CEP)- a joint venture between Georgia Tech and Emory University aimed to empower older adults diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and their care partners- with a focus on improving aging-in-place and fall prevention outcomes for older adults through the implementation of smart home technology-based interventions.