brianna blake.

Mental Fitness Coach & Trainer: Education & Family Resilience.

Peer Support Specialist, Teacher, Firefighter

I’ve spent most of my life in roles centered around helping people grow, perform under pressure, and navigate hard things.

I’m a wife, mom, firefighter, lieutenant, peer supporter, educator, coach, and instructor, as well as a teacher. While those roles may seem different, they’ve taught me the same thing: people do better when they feel prepared, understood, and supported—and the best time to build those supports is before someone is struggling.

My background in special education has shaped the way I approach mental fitness in the fire service. As an educator, I’m always asking: How do we make this understandable? How do we make it practical? How do we meet people where they are?

First responders spend their careers preparing for other people’s worst days. We train repeatedly so that when something happens, we aren’t figuring it out for the first time in the middle of an emergency. I believe we should approach mental fitness the same way.

We shouldn’t have to wait until someone reaches a breaking point to talk about stress, trauma, sleep, relationships, or the cumulative effects of this career. Mental fitness is about understanding what this job can do to us, building tools to navigate it, recognizing when something has changed, and knowing how to support the person sitting next to us.

I’m also passionate about extending that support beyond the individual responder. This career affects entire families. Partners experience the missed holidays, interrupted sleep, unpredictable schedules, difficult calls, and the person who sometimes comes home carrying more than they left with. Children grow up within the rhythms of public safety too. I want to help responder families better understand this lifestyle, communicate through its challenges, and build resilience together.

Sometimes support is sitting with someone after a difficult call. Sometimes it’s teaching a room of first responders why their brain is reacting the way it is. Sometimes it’s helping a family understand one another a little better.

My goal with Elevate is to help make mental fitness something we practice throughout a career—not something we turn to only when things have already become overwhelming.

Because taking care of our people means supporting the person underneath the uniform—and the people waiting for them at home.