Brenda is a Veteran of the United States Army Reserves and holds dual citizenship in both the United States and Italy. She has earned a BA in the History of Art and Architecture from De Paul University, and a Masters in Science in Historic Preservation from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago. She has  studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Cardinal Bea Institute for Jewish Studies in Rome, while continuing advanced scholarship in Jewish History at the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago. She specializes in Rome Jewish history through the Torah, as well as in Historic Preservation, and is a member of the Illinois Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums and the Illinois Holocaust Museum. She provides walking tours of the Jewish ghetto neighborhood and is authorized to explain privately inside the Jewish Museum of Rome, inside the Spanish Synagogue, and inside the Great Synagogue. Her highlights walking tours of the Colosseum, Roman Forums, Palatine Hill, Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and Saint Peter’s Basilica are grounded in traditional Jewish sources denoting significant religious aspects in Jewish lives from the ancient past through the Baroque. The rabbis, emperors, popes and famous renaissance and baroque artists mentioned in her tours all represent important accomplishments and contributions to Jewish history.  Her recent academic papers were accepted to present at Conferences in the United States, Europe, Iceland and Singapore: “A Mitzvah in Historic Preservation: The Need for the Conservation of Stone Epitaphs Dedicate to Jewish Women in Ancient Rome” "דבר אחר in Ancient Rome: Understanding Greco-Roman History through the Torah and Historic Preservation" “The Roman Jews and Pope Pius XII” “Christian Students and The Jewish Museum of Rome” "Advocating the Conservation of the Ostia Antica Synagogue in Rome in its Surrounding Landscape"