My Biography

Breanne was born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She is the daughter of Bruce Palmer and Rosalie Munroe Palmer, both immigrants from Jamaica to South Florida.

In 2009, Breanne graduated from J.P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs, Florida, after spending four years participating in the school’s prestigious drama and musical theatre program. She had aspirations of becoming a journalist and eventually, a theatre critic.

At the age of 18, Breanne began her undergraduate career at the University of Florida, quickly switching majors from Journalism to Political Science. Breanne became heavily involved in numerous and varied student organizations during her four years at the University of Florida. She received honors for her academic work, including induction into Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi. However, Breanne’s most rewarding experience at the University of Florida was serving as an Ambassador for the Institute of Black Culture (Multicultural & Diversity Affairs). In the wake of a public incident of racism on campus, Breanne joined other student organizers who, through activism and advocacy, sought lasting change on campus. Breanne would go on to pen her senior thesis, titled Blackface on Display: The Anatomy of a Racial-Bias Incident at the University of Florida and the Role its Black Culture Center Played in the Aftermath. The thesis used ethnographic case studies and interviews to illustrate how predominantly white institutions can better triage and prevent racism on college campuses. In May 2013, Breanne earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with a minor in African American Studies, magna cum laude.

After graduating from the University of Florida, Breanne participated in the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) Corporate Law Program, serving as a summer associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Cooley LLP. Breanne then matriculated to the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., where she spent all three years in the top 30% of her academic class. Breanne held leadership positions in the Black Law Students Association (1L Representative), Women’s Legal Alliance (Academic Chair), and the Georgetown Law Journal (Member Development and Diversity Editor). Breanne was a founding member of The Coalition at Georgetown Law, an unofficial student organization that penned a viral open letter to faculty, staff, and administrators in the wake of the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO in 2014. The Coalition issued demands to the law school administration, entered into protracted negotiations and critical conversations with leadership and faculty, and collaborated with aligned coalitions at peer law schools like Harvard and Columbia. The Coalition’s continued work led to revisions in faculty training and the hiring of the law school’s first Director of Equity, Community, and Inclusion in 2016.

Breanne graduated from Georgetown Law in May 2016, earning cum laude honors, a certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies, and the Dean’s Certificate for outstanding service to the Georgetown Law community. Since graduating from law school, Breanne has worked in attorney and policy roles in the federal government, a corporate law firm, and nonprofit organizations including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the UndocuBlack Network, Democracy Forward, and the U.S. Departments of Interior and Justice.

Breanne is an avowed womanist and takes lessons from historical Black women leaders like Ella Baker, Maria Stewart, Fannie Lou Hamer, Constance Baker Motley, Nanny of the Maroons, Yaa Asantewaa, and others. Breanne enjoys West African dance, ballet, capoeira, CrossFit, spinning, singing, floral design, traveling, searching for good Jamaican cuisine, and reading Afro-futurist novels. Breanne lives with her husband CJ and their rescue dog, Charlie P.