Entering the military as an older person, she wanted to do something for her country.

In 2001, she was given the opportunity to assist the state following the 9/11 terrorist attack. She designed a commemorative license plate in honor of the victims and survivors, which has raised about $15 million in California to support anti-terrorism.

Major Brenda Threatt serves as an assistant director of Veterans Services at El Camino College. She is also a military officer, chaplain and ordained minister at the African Methodist Episcopal Church. There are very few Black female chaplains.

“It’s easier for people to stereotype than it is to learn about another person and accept them. That’s not just for veterans. It’s how society is with a lot of groups,” Threatt says.

Much of Threatt’s career has been in the veterans’ space. Her role at ECC requires her to manage the center and staff that supports the educational goals of student veterans.

Veterans Services identifies resources that provide veterans with career opportunities, housing and support.

Previously, she worked with homeless veterans in an organization she ran that housed nearly 400 veterans in need of housing.

“The way to prevent homelessness is to give someone the opportunity to have an education and career,” Threatt says. “So in my scheme of working with veterans, this is where you stop veteran homelessness at this stage.”

One of the greatest challenges she faced at ECC was bridging the gaps between the veterans department and other departments. With Veterans Services, the overall leadership of El Camino has created a space of equity, diversity and inclusion.

“A challenge was helping people to understand and learn who the veteran student is,” Threatt says. “We’re not always going to get it right, but because the leadership is the tuning work, that keeps the rhythm going.”

Threatt has worked at churches, nonprofit organizations and in city government. She began working as a veteran liaison for then Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in 2008 and was asked to join the California State Guard as a chaplain.

“I started speaking on the things that civilians and people can do to support their communities,” she says.

One of the primary roles of a chaplain is to provide casualty notifications.

“It’s when a soldier dies and we notify the family it was a casualty,” Threatt says. “When a military person dies, the department of defense has four hours after the confirmation of death to notify their next of kin.”

Another big job Threatt has as a chaplain is suicide prevention.

“I would go to hospitals if there was an attempted suicide, to minister to the victim,” she says. “I still do suicide prevention training. People always look at ministry people differently, especially in the military. Getting soldiers to understand that you can be trusted and that you are not judging them, and I think that’s just with people in general. They think clergy is like we’re flying around pointing fingers.”

Her role in that field requires her to provide Soldier Readiness Processing, which prepares and certifies soldiers to go to combat.

“I am one of the persons that will interview them to make sure they are emotionally able to withstand combat. A psychologist will interview them along with a legal team to make sure all their papers are in order,” Threatt says.

Lawrence Moreno, overseer of the Veterans Services office, is a 67-year-old worker who has been involved with ECC for several years in the Student Development Office. He started the discount program at ECC.

“Now it’s called the ASO (Associated Students Organization) discount sticker,” Moreno says. “I started that from scratch because we didn’t have anything like that here.”

He has been assisting with overseeing their student veteran workers and is also in charge of the Veterans Pantry, a subsidiary of the Warrior Pantry. Both pantries provide students with nutritious food and necessities to help them thrive in class without distractions created by food insecurity.

“I met Brenda originally when I was working at the Student Development Office and I used to also assist with the Warrior Pantry, and Brenda was doing a collaboration with the Warrior Pantry for the veterans and the community,” Moreno says. “She was helping the homeless because Brenda has a really big heart, so she’s always seeing how she can promote relationships with the community and El Camino and the veterans, and that’s where I met her at first and realized she was just a go-getter.”

Threatt has seen students suffering from homelessness and wants to provide help. She wants to find funding, housing resources and partners, and help in providing homes for students that need them.

“I wanted the opportunity to work at the other end of homelessness, which was prevention and education, and I believe that God directs our paths,” Threatt says.

Student Services Specialist and School Certifying Official Nina Bailey first met Threatt through the hiring process for the veterans center at El Camino College.

“I have been in education for about 30 years and I would rate Brenda, of all my administrators, [in the] top five,” Bailey says. “The veterans program at El Camino helps students transition back into a normal environment after serving in the military. Brenda brings resources from off-campus to assist and supplement what the college can’t provide.”

According to Moreno, Threatt is the heart of the office.

“If we lose her it’s like losing the captain of a ship because she’s so great in knowing how to motivate,” Moreno says.

Threatt says the importance of staying involved in these services allows for the world to flourish.

“We are created to take care of one another,” she says. “Communities don’t happen without people, government or business. Nothing happens without people. We have to take care of the well-being of people.”

One of her mottos correlates with a quote from Anne Frank: “How wonderful it is that nobody needs to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

“Every single moment we have to give, we have to be thinking about what we can do this day to have a good day and to help someone else have a good day,” Threatt says.

In October 2022, Threatt completed her Doctor of Public Administration studies at California Baptist University in Riverside, Calif.

She is a chaplain for the county probation department and volunteers with the Montford Point Marines, a nonprofit veteran organization that honors the first African Americans to serve in the United States Marine Corps.

“My life has been one of service,” Threatt says.

She is the mother of two children, a son and daughter, and has two granddaughters. In her free time, she enjoys sewing and playing with her grandchildren. Threatt also enjoys cooking and is known for her famous fried chicken and likes making intriguing salads.

“People in the military could be a model for civilians,” Threatt says. “When you go into the military, it doesn’t matter what color your skin is. Everybody has that uniform, everybody is an American and everybody takes the same oath, and that oath is to protect and defend the constitution of the United States.”

Editor’s Notes:

• Tags were added on Sunday, June 4.
• Video was embedded on Wednesday, June 7.
• Headline was updated and photos were enlarged on Sunday, June 11.