Brandi Powell always knew she’d be on Broadway. She always knew she’d be a star on stage, greeted by raucous laughter and pouring tears from an adoring audience.
She just didn’t know those dreams might look a little different than the average theater star’s.
“As a small child, I decided I was going to be an actress,” she says, “I became obsessed with this notion of living in New York City and being on stage. I used to practice my conversations with with Jay Leno.”
In her 20s, on the verge of moving to Chicago to chase the dream, she had an epiphany.
“I had this big revelation of…you'll have everything that you desire: but you don't have to go get it, it'll come to you. The full circle moment is, I'm now in a place where I get to speak to people, I get to make them laugh, I get to make them cry, and it's not just some flimsy comedy where I'm just, tripping and falling.
“I'm doing something that's meaningful and purposeful, that’s both ministry and speaking, that’s both ministry and acting, that’s both ministry and comedy…that is all of the things, and I didn't have to go chase it. It's here.”
As Brandi traveled to New York City in fall 2024 for Prepared’s Annual Company Off-site, it felt like an arrival a few decades in the making.
“I was walking to where we were having our meetings, and I was looking around Broadway and I just stopped and stared at this sign for a play. My goal as a child was to go to work on Broadway and yeah, I'm not on stage, but I'm literally on Broadway on my way to work, and I was just in awe of the moment. Everything that I wanted, everything that I felt called to do it has found me, and it was just this beautiful moment. There's a level of fulfillment now that I never got on stage because I don't have to pretend to be anything.”
But how did she get here? I sat down with Brandi early last week to hear the story…
Josh: What was life like growing up?
Brandi: I grew up in the church and my dad was a police officer. I had this reverential fear and adoration of police work because he would pull up in front of our house in his police car. I learned the Miranda rights when I was like five. Even with what my dad did from an early age, I never thought I would be in in the industry with him because I was going to be an actress. That was it, that was it. That was all.
So how’d you end up in 911?
I got into dispatch because I'd only worked like office jobs and so I thought, well, this is like an office job. I didn't know the stress level was going to be different, but it was…I learned that early.
What were your early experiences like?
I was probably 24 and it wasn't initially easy for me because I'm an overly empathetic person and I would cry after all the calls. I'd be trying to pray with these people and I didn't understand a lot of a lot of the attitudes and I didn't necessarily care for people calling me and cursing me out, because I've always been a very docile person, even being like a theater nerd, and being like bold and audacious on stage, I was never that way in real life. I was sassy and loud with my friends, but if I didn't know you, you thought I was really introverted.
The aggression of it was a lot to take and being an empath I would feel the aggression, I would feel the sadness, I would feel the sorrow, the pain, the anguish, and it was overwhelming at first. Then I discovered that being an empath was my superpower and that if I feel what the person is feeling, then I'm able to say to them what they need to hear, to feel better. I became the go-to person for crisis calls, the go-to person for hysterical callers…I would talk people down off the ledge.
Why do you think that became your role so quickly?
I just have this deep love of people and our thought processes and the different revelations that can help us feel better and understand each other better, mixed with my spiritual upbringing. For me it’s about love and grace. Grace means that I love you, even if you don't deserve it. I will be kind to you, especially when you don't deserve it. Those are the basic tenets of my life.
After such a successful stint in the center, what motivated you to take off the headset?
I had to leave to take care of my son after I had to call 911 myself for my son on my own wedding day. When I was going to find another job after he got stable, my experience only translated into a secretary job because of federal classification…but dispatcher and secretary is not the same. Either way, I started doing it for a few months and I was so underwhelmed that I went and took some data analytics courses and I taught myself how to code, that's how bored I was as a secretary.
Then I started speaking at conferences because in being away from dispatch I realized I couldn't be away from dispatch. I was like, “I have to at least be dispatch adjacent, right?” Then I started becoming obsessed with the tech companies that serve dispatch and obsessed with the conferences and the speaking engagements, and all these things that serve the people that I knew I was called to serve. And that's how I became The 9-1-1 Chaplain.
Tell me about growing up in the church
It felt like another family, like an extension of family, and it was a lot of protocol and ritual which is funny because now I'm completely away from tradition and ritual and protocol. My mindset is like this is love, and God's love is that he loves everybody… growing up in it was a beautiful experience. I've been called to help a lot of people and in this last season of my life I've been called to help dispatch. So this is what I've been doing for a while now.
How do you apply your philosophies to what you teach 9-1-1 professionals?
Yesterday I taught a class and I asked the class: how do you harbor a safe environment? Someone says, “Dispatch is not a safe environment.” And I said, “Well. it should be.”
It should be a safe environment. And if if it's not a safe environment, you need to make it a safe environment, you need to be the safe environment for someone else and I believe I've always been that. We can't control the calls, but we can control the environment. We can't control the calls, but we can control your wellness. We can't control the call. But we can control the technology. So let's control the things we can control and that’s how we treat other people and how we give love.
And, last but not least, how are you bringing your experience, your perspective, and your life as The 9-1-1 Chaplain to Future 9-1-1?
I think Future 9-1-1 is this beautiful combination of perspectives in dispatch. We have these leaders, we have these trainers, and we have frontline personnel, so you have this 360 degree view of dispatch.
We have to dig into some of the the faults of dispatch, some of the areas where we've been stagnant or where we've been deficient. To do that, we have to take a really hard look at ourselves as trainers, a hard look at ourselves as leaders, as frontline dispatchers, and see those flaws and mistakes that we perpetuated.
Sometimes we were the mean girl, sometimes when we were the person who wasn't gracious, or we were the person who was resistant to change or technology. We have to address those things because by using our own experiences, we're able to find that thread with the audience, that thread of similarity, that thread of recognition, so they can see themselves in the three of us.
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Assisting Every Call For Service