Nicholle Vincent Brock

Find your passion and stick with it. Don't let people discourage you in spaces and places that's not for them - it was never meant for them. When you have that feeling, when you're given that passion, that calling, it's not anybody else's business to tell you what you should or should not do. Continue to move forward, continue to do what makes you happy in that moment, and stay with it. Don't give up. I think I've given up on a lot of things and failed to understand what success looks like. Sometimes I'll barely cross the finish line and then move on to something else, but I'm not really done - I just barely tipped the iceberg. I fail sometimes at seeing things all the way to the end, and I let people discourage me in spaces that I shouldn't. Don't ever let that happen. Don't let insomniacs kill your dreams - people who can't sleep shouldn't kill your dreams. Sometimes people just don't see the vision, and that's okay because they're not supposed to. It was never their vision to begin with. You have to have that spirit of discernment and understand that these voices have nothing to do with what you have going on. They're projections onto you. If you can see it, you can achieve it.

The biggest challenge and opportunity in my field is bringing attention to missing Black and brown people who are often unaddressed in areas where white individuals receive media coverage. This is an untapped space as far as the media's concerned. The question is how do we find and how do we put the same stress and emphasis on missing Black and brown people as we do for others? As a Black person, I can sit back and complain about what everybody else is not doing, but I have to make sure that I am doing my part for my own community. We also need the community to recognize their responsibilities in taking care of those that take care of us, especially in public safety where mental health is such a critical issue. If people retire and go silent, we will end up with more people in mental states that we don't want to see them in.

The most important values to me are passion, perseverance, and community service. I believe in finding your passion and sticking with it no matter what. I'm determined now, especially with my current work on missing and exploited individuals, to see things through to the end until it's time to pass it on to somebody else. Between my passion for the fire service, mental health, and community service, these are definitely my passions that I'm going to see till the end. I'm a big community activist - I love community stuff and doing things that serve others. I also believe strongly in doing my part for my own community rather than just complaining about what others aren't doing. The more people who are willing to stand in the gap and advocate, the better. I have a responsibility to use my voice and my skills to help those who are overlooked.