Jess Brandt

Interim associate director

Jess Brandt joined Connecticut Sea Grant as interim associate director in 2025 and the faculty in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment & Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of Connecticut in 2020. She leads a research lab at UConn focused on contaminants in aquatic food webs and their importance for animal and human health. She is interested in selenium, mercury and PFAS in freshwater and coastal systems and emphasizes issues of fish conservation. Jess holds a master’s degree in Environmental Health Sciences from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a doctorate in Environmental Health from Duke University.