Brenda Washington always dreamed of becoming a lawyer. However, as a kid growing up in a small town in rural Alabama, she didn’t see any representation and struggled with the aspiration.
In 2004, at the age of 18, she joined the U.S. Army to pay for college. But her life and career took a different path; she ended up serving as a combat medic for 20 years.
“ I was never gonna leave,” she explained. “They were gonna have to put me out. But in 2020, when they sent me to New York for COVID support, it just, it was a lot. About 70% of my patients died, and I said, ‘You know, I think it’s time to transition to something else.’”…