When I was nine, I knew I was going to join the military. I knew my destiny, my purpose. There was no need for a backup plan. As I got older, it became clear that nothing was going to change that for me. When September eleventh happened, I was in my English class, watching the fear that blanketed our country. My high school was just 15 minutes from O'Hare International Airport. It was the event that made it clear to me who I was and what I wanted: to protect those whom I love

My understanding of voting did not begin in a classroom or through a book. It began with living, breathing stories about my grandfather voting for the first time. The first time he voted was after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed. Before that, he couldn’t. He had seen men lynched and castrated just for trying. On Election Day in November 1965, he prepared with dignity—meticulously starching and ironing his shirt and overalls until they stood on their own, polishing hi

I am passionate about helping people transform pain into purpose because I have lived through the reality that pain, when understood and supported, need not be the end of the story—it can become the beginning of something powerful. As an Air Force Veteran, former Director of the Chicago Heights Vet Center, and a psychotherapist specializing in trauma, I have spent decades walking alongside individuals carrying invisible wounds. Today, as the Founder and CEO of Her Service Mat