Destini Barclay

I began my professional journey in the military, serving 5 years as a personnelist, which is closely related to human resource management. I was originally in Intel but had to be reclassed after the mental toll of the work became too much. After 5 years in my new role, I realized I actually loved it. My military career was cut short due to plantar fasciitis - I was given the choice to get surgery or get out, and when I chose surgery, it was botched, leaving me paralyzed and unable to walk for a full year. But I'm not someone who can just sit around and do nothing, so while bedridden, I went back to school and earned my associate's in Administrative Science with an undergrad certificate in human resource management. After that year, I still wasn't able to return to work, so I continued my education, earning my bachelor's in Human Resource Management summa cum laude, followed by my master's in Human Resource Management, also summa cum laude, with a certificate in People Organization Management. I did all of this while injured, recovering, and raising a baby. I went on to work as an office manager for a non-profit autism clinic, where my key responsibilities included employee relations, scheduling, payroll management, maintaining records, hiring, and interviewing. One of my proudest achievements was when I was moved to a brand new section with no experience and created a system that cut our process time from 6 hours to only an hour and a half - 7 years later, they still use my system. Throughout my career, I've faced sexism in the military and disability discrimination once people learn about my PTSD, but I've always followed the advice of an old supervisor: just keep doing a good job, and they won't be able to say anything about your work.