Sondra Leiggi Brandon is the Vice President of Patient Care, Systems Behavioral Health & Medicine at Hawaii’s only level 1 trauma hospital, Queens Medical Center. Dr. Leiggi Brandon oversees behavioral health services across the system and leads the island’s only free-standing behavioral health hospital. She has expanded the state’s only Mental Health Emergency Worker Program, allowing law enforcement to consult directly with mental health clinicians to determine the appropriate level of care for individuals in crisis. Dr. Leiggi Brandon additionally led the behavioral health disaster response team during the Maui Fires, ensuring immediate and sustained access to mental health support for impacted communities through multiple temporary housing arrangements. Her work centers on improving access, coordination, and continuity of care for individuals with behavioral health needs, while advancing system-wide strategies for integrated, trauma-informed response models, all while designing models of care that uplift the expertise and role of the nurse. Dr. Leiggi Brandon earned her Master’s in Nursing from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, a Master of Public Health from Loma Linda University, and both a Doctorate in Nursing Practice and an MBA from Johns Hopkins University.