Brenda Swann Holmes is an American chemist.
Holmes graduated from Howard University in 1971, and earned a Ph.D. in chemistry there in 1976, with a dissertation titled "A Study of Spin-Lattice Relaxation Times of <sup>19</sup>F, <sup>31</sup>p, and <sup>2</sup>D in PF<sub>6</sub>-In Deuterated Dimethyl Sulfoxide".
Holmes won a National Research Council postdoctoral appointment in chemical research at the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), studying nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. In 1985 she won an EEO Award at the NRL. She was with Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) in the 1990s.
Holmes served on the editorial review committee of the National Technical Association in 1990, and was keynote speaker at the Howard University Graduate Symposium in 1997.
In the 1980s, Holmes' research was published in Macromolecules, Journal of Magnetic Resonance, and Journal of Applied Polymer Science.