In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast we go back to our March 11, 2021 virtual event with Midshipman 1st Class Sydney Barber. In December 2020 Sydney Barber was appointed as the brigade commander for the United States Naval Academy – the first black female brigade commander at the academy. In an interview with The Capital Gazette about the appointment, Sydney said, “I see it more as a responsibility and a privilege and an honor to be able to be someone to pave the way. I feel extremely blessed that I have this opportunity to open doors for people who are coming after me.” The brigade commander — who serves for a semester — is selected by the academy’s senior leadership through an application and interview process. The role was previously held by 1st Class Ryan Chapman, who called Barber a “catalyst for action, a visionary, a listener, a doer, and a person driven by compassion, by faith, by a fierce sense of passion and heart full of love.” Barber, who is a mechanical engineering major, joined the Reagan Foundation’s Chief Learning Officer Tony Pennay in a conversation about her role. Let’s listen.

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