Lynchburg Reporter

Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance issued the following announcement on Dec. 21

View story at The News & Advance... Before taking her first EMT class at Campbell County Rescue Squad in 2006, Capt. Candace Brown of the Lynchburg Fire Department was a single mother to a two-year-old and a newborn, working three jobs to make ends meet.

She drove a school bus, served as a licensed CNA at Virginia Baptist Hospital, and worked as an employee at Bath & Body Works. Even so, Brown said, she did not make more than $18,000 per year altogether.

Brown knew she wanted a career in health care — and one she could get into relatively quickly. She sought something where she could have opportunity for advancement, retirement and, most of all, provide a stable life and healthy socioeconomic situation for herself and her children.

Now, 15 years after starting her first EMT classes, she has received this year’s prestigious, competitive Governor’s Award for Outstanding Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Prehospital Provider in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

“I feel like I’ve come from very humble beginnings, and I just wanted to give back to my community. So to be nominated for this award and to win this award has been tremendously overwhelming,” she said. “I am extremely grateful for the opportunity.”

Although nursing was a consideration when she was looking to change careers, Brown said between caring for her children and working three jobs, she did not believe she would have the time necessary to devote to the pursuit.

Thanks to a long-time friend, Brown’s former sixth-grade teacher who was married to a firefighter/paramedic, Brown said she was introduced to the idea of EMT certification.

“They kind of piqued my interest into going and taking an EMT class,” Brown said. “My days would start, typically, at 5:30 in the morning, and I usually didn’t finish my third job until 11 at night. And then in between, I was doing the classes as well.”

With the help of a support system consisting of her mother, grandparents, her children’s paternal grandparents, and friends who constantly encouraged and motivated her, Brown was able to obtain her EMT certification and launch into a new career.

After obtaining her EMT certification, Brown was hired at the Lynchburg Fire Department in 2008, where she went through the recruit school to get her required fire certifications. In 2010, Brown became a certified paramedic, then an Advance Practice Paramedic in 2019, which allows her to administer specialized, advanced lifesaving skills in the field. After reaching this level, Brown worked as the EMS supervisor for the city’s C-shift before stepping into her current role of EMS training officer.

Brown is the first known woman in the history of the Lynchburg Fire Department to win this governor’s award, to the best of her knowledge and that of Deputy Chief Robert Lipscomb, a colleague whose career with the fire department spans almost 32 years.

Brown joined three previous Lynchburg Fire Department employees as a recipient of the prestigious award.

The award is granted through a nomination process. Peers and stakeholders with various fire departments in Virginia may submit names to a panel committee for consideration. Through the Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Service and regional EMS councils — in Brown’s case at Lynchburg, the Blue Ridge EMS Council — nominees first win recognition in their region, and their name is then submitted to the governor for the state award, according to Lipscomb.

Brown said taking home the governor’s award reflects well on both the City of Lynchburg and the BREMS region as a whole.

The governor’s award does not represent Brown’s first milestone in the city fire department’s history: In 2018, she became the first African American woman to be promoted to the rank of captain.

Although Brown said she hates being in the spotlight, she shared her experience and successes with The News & Advance in hopes of inspiring others.

“I try to think of a little girl or a little boy that is maybe growing up in the inner city, that don’t think that they have a lot of options out there for them. They can create their own destiny. It takes a lot of hard work, but nothing’s impossible,” Brown said.

Growing up in an area Brown described as a rough part of town just below one of Lynchburg’s fire stations, a disadvantaged socioeconomic situation was something she worked hard to overcome.

“It’s not always about race, or gender, or whatever. I think especially socioeconomic status,” Brown said. “Regardless of your race, or your gender, or your background, I think a lot of times those of us that come from less than fortunate means ... we feel like we have the world against us. When things are tough, you don’t really sometimes want to put in the effort, because you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s so hard.’ But when you see someone who came from an area that you’re from, that grew up on the same street that you grew up on, you’re like, ‘Well, he or she did it. Maybe I can do it, too.’”

Lipscomb has known Brown since she was hired at the department. For the last almost 14 years, he has had the chance to watch Brown grow from her beginning as a firefighter/EMT to her current position as captain and EMS supervisor.

Brown has never shied away from a challenge, he said.

“Any of the assignments she’s been in — because I’ve seen her on an array of different assignments — she’s always been very conscientious about her job, and doing it to the best of her ability,” Lipscomb said. “She’s always doing what’s in the best interest of the citizens, the patient, the department, and everybody.”

In addition to her various duties within the fire department, Brown is working on a master’s in public health from the University of Lynchburg. Until last September, she served as an adjunct professor at Randolph College.

Brown said she did not know how it was possible to select just one nominee as a winner when all of those in the running were surely deserving of the distinction.

“We are all doing great work. None of us are in this for the accolades. We’re not in this for an award. We’re not doing this for any type of spotlight. We’re doing this because we enjoy giving back. We have a servant’s heart. We want to serve the community. We want to save lives, and if we can’t save a life, we want to be a support system for that family that may have lost a loved one,” she said.

"She’s always doing what’s in the best interest of the citizens, the patient, the department, and everybody." - Lynchburg Fire Deputy Chief Robert Lipscomb, on Capt. Candace Brown.

Original source can be found here.