Brandie Wilkerson

Brandie Wilkerson was born on July 1, 1992, in Lausanne, Switzerland, and later moved to Canada at the age of seven. Her athletic background is notable, with her father, Herb Johnson Wilkerson, having been an NBA draft pick for the Cleveland Cavaliers who played professional basketball in Europe and Japan, and her mother, Stephanie Vuilleumier, being an endurance runner and two-time Ironman finalist. Wilkerson initially excelled in indoor volleyball at York University, where she was honored as York Female Rookie of the Year and twice earned CIS All-Canadian recognition between 2010 and 2014. She transitioned to beach volleyball in her early twenties, a relatively late start compared to many competitors, but quickly adapted to the sport. Her early professional beach volleyball career included three seasons with Claudia Séguin (2014) and Julie Gordon (2015-2016), competing primarily on the NORCECA Continental Tour.

Wilkerson’s career saw significant progression when she partnered with Heather Bansley in 2016, making their debut at the FIVB World Tour Finals in Toronto, achieving a top-10 finish. In their first full season in 2017, they reached the quarterfinals at the FIVB World Championships. The 2018 season was a breakthrough for the duo, as they achieved six podium finishes on the FIVB World Tour, including three tournament victories, and closed the year as the number one ranked team in the world. A notable victory was her first career World Tour gold medal in Warsaw, Poland, on Canada Day, which also marked her birthday. Following Bansley’s retirement, Wilkerson partnered with Sophie Bukovec for the 2022 season, and despite being a new team, they secured a silver medal at the 2022 FIVB World Championships—their fifth international tournament together.

In October 2022, Wilkerson formed a new partnership with Melissa Humana-Paredes, a former teammate from York University. This new duo quickly achieved success, debuting on the Beach Pro Tour in February 2023. They secured a third-place finish at the Elite 16 in Ostrava, a first-place finish at the Challenge-level tournament in Jurmala, and an Elite 16 gold medal in Montreal. They were quarterfinalists at the 2023 FIVB World Championships and, as Team Canada’s Opening Ceremony flag bearers at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, they won a silver medal. Their momentum continued into the 2024 season with silver medals at the Elite 16 events in Doha and Ostrava, culminating in a historic silver medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, marking Canada’s best-ever Olympic result in women’s beach volleyball and the country’s first Olympic medal in the discipline. Wilkerson co-founded Project Worthy, a scholarship program aimed at increasing BIPOC representation in volleyball.