Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Brendan graduated from Harvard University and taught English language and literature in Santiago de Chile before enrolling in Yale University's PhD program in American Studies.  While at Yale, Brendan became involved with GESO, the union for graduate-student teachers and researchers at Yale.  As a GESO leader, Brendan collaborated in campaigns for social justice with Yale's unions of clerical and technical and maintainance and dining hall employees, as well with the New Haven PWF organization Connecticut Center for a New Economy.  After finishing his PhD, Brendan became an organizer for the hospitality workers union Unite Here.  In 2005, Brendan moved to Arizona to start Unite Here's hotel organizing program here.  More recently, Brendan has directed Unite Here's political and community programs in Arizona