Meet Brittany Powell | Chaplain Educator, Motivator Speaker and Consultant

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brittany Powell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brittany, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My thought process started with the foundation of my youth. My family has consisted of hard workers and creators. I have always been encourage to create and think out of the box. The very first business I owned was a cleaning business and the second business I owned was a T-shirt business. I recently started my own consulting business because I believe I have something to offer persons who are seeking religious education, or professional development. COVID was also part of the motivation to start my most recent business because it was a period when the world became innovative. I was able to create the first virtual program for an organization.

And as my future Father in Love would say you need a job and a hustle to create safety for yourself.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Hello, My Name is Rev. Brittany Powell M.Div and My Pronouns are She/ They. I am a chaplain educator, ordain preacher, and a womanist theologian. I am very proud to be a chaplain educator because I feel that I am living out my calling in ministry by educating the next generation of chaplains, clergy, and activists who are passionate about providing spiritual care to those who are hurting and suffering due to systemic oppression and the living human experience as well as the field of spiritual care.

What I think sets me apart from others is that I reflect on the world through the lens of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, and class to name a few. I am aware that our social identities and intersections inform mine and others’ perspectives. I am conscious of how culture and history have influenced the socio-political landscape. As a result of these ideologies how humans live in them has a direct influence on our health.

For example, According to an article published by the NIH states, “Clinicians should consider that elections could cause transitory increases in poor mental health and tailor patient health accordingly”.

We know that the country is currently experiencing waves of grief, hurt, and pain since the death of George Floyd, and the Israeli-Hamas war. The genocide of the Palestinian people, and surviving an endemic. My awareness of these events and the impact it has on the human nervous and emotional systems is what makes me different from others. I am concerned about humanity’s spiritual health.

I am proud of this work because I am concerned with our moral consciousness and the human’s role in community with others.

I am a Black queer woman so it was not easy to get to where I am today. I am a child of the 80s. I come from a working/ lower middle-class family. My Parents were people who struggled with drugs and alcohol in their youth but were able to recover later in life. My parents and larger family were people who instilled love, faith, educational success, and a hard work ethic in me. I was able to graduate from Spelman College with a B. A in Political Science and achieved my Masters from the Interdenominational Theological Center In Atlanta, GA.

To be a chaplain educator I had to graduate from seminary and be licensed and ordained. My Pastor at the time believed in ordaining women even though the Southern Baptist church didn’t ordain women. However, Baptist churches are autonomous so he ordained me. However, I was living a life of celibacy at the time of my ordination nor was I a seminarian.

Unfortunately, My Pastor at the time didn’t believe you had to go to school to be seminarian trained. I didn’t feel safe at that church after being accepted into the seminary. I would have achieved something my Pastor now Bishop had not done. The ministers were warned if , ” I started preaching crazy it’s because of the seminary”. Needless to say, I left that ministry after my first year of seminary.

My journey to becoming a Chaplain educator was not easy. It was a six-year process. I was in the old process which took four to six years and the new process takes 2 to four years. I took a year off and I failed my lasting voting committee fall of 2019 and I became a Hospice chaplain for a year during COVID. I also went through a terrible separation and divorce in 2020. I completed my full certification process May of 2023. How I overcame my the challenges by trusting myself and listening to my community. I knew I was born to do this work and I had people around me who believed in me as well.

The challenges that I faced in this field are what many women, black and queer people feel in this world. Many people have negative perspectives about people who live within my intersection. I have survived because I know who I am and I have people who love me so I don’t give in to negativity when I have bad days, I have people who love me and remind me that I am deserving of love.

The lesson I have learned along the way is to trust your gut. You know you and Be honest with yourself about how things are impacting you. If you don’t feel good check your environment and stay connected with your body. Lastly, everyone is not rooting for you and if you’re in a space where people are shaming you or bullying you that’s not a good space.

I want the world to know that there are people who care about your well-being in the professional world and they are called chaplains.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my friends are in D.C. I am taking them to B.U.S B.O.Y.S and Poets and then we are going to the African- American Museum, and later going to half-smoke for dinner and then find somewhere to dance on U-street

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to shoutout my mentor Chris Brown who is no longer here with us but he was someone who believed in me! Secondly, I want to shoutout Bernard Richardson who is another mentor who supported me through my certification process to be an educator.

I wouldn’t be here without my Mom. Sister, aunts, a host of cousins, family, friends, and mentors. My beautiful partner Ceshia and great sorors and colleagues.

I have a great community.

Instagram: @blackivybp

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rev-brittany-powell-m-div-242803a5/

Other: https://journals.sfu.ca/rpfs/index.php/rpfs/article/view/1557

Image Credits
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7602772/