 She then moved to Tom McMahon's lab for her post doctoral work as a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows (1990-1993).In graduate school Brainerd's mentors included Indonesian born ichthyologist Karel F. Liem and the paleontologists Farish Jenkins and Alfred (Fuzz) Crompton.Brainerd's first academic appointment was at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst (1994-2006).