Lisa Carrington Firmin is a Latina, writer, award winning author, poet, and Bronze Star-decorated combat U.S. Air Force veteran. Author of Latina Warrior and Stories from the Front: Pain, Betrayal, and Resilience on the MST Battlefield. Founder/CEO of Carrington Firmin LLC providing writing and consulting services in Leadership, Veteran Culture, Transitions, Military Sexual Trauma (MST) and Intersectionality. In 2025, she was honored with a legacy Pioneer award in her name by Shield of Sisters for her groundbreaking work to help educate and prevent MST. This award will be presented each year to the pioneers that follow. Featured on the cover of Women Enterprise Magazine Texas and provided the leadership keynote at Harvesting Partnerships, hosted by the Women Business Council – Southwest in 2024. She created training materials and conducted workshops and sessions to educate military personnel and civilians about MST in 2023 using the very lived experiences in her book, Stories from the Front.
Her poetry is deeply personal, an intimate reflection into the invisible wounds of MST, PTSD, trauma, combat, hardship, and the joys of her Latina culture. Her art is exhibited or shared nationally on podcasts, at various universities, VA Healthcare systems, conferences, summits, airports, and galleries. The Department of Veterans Affairs in 2023 featured one of her poems, “Invisible Veteran” at their historic ceremony to announce a more inclusive motto.
She is the co-editor for the Veteran Book Initiative at Blue Ear Books, assisting those who served in writing and publishing their stories. Carrington Firmin is the founder of The University of Texas at San Antonio’s Office of Veteran and Military Affairs, and the UTSA Top Scholar program. She retired from the United States Air Force as its most senior ranking Latina officer, after leading UTSA’s AF ROTC program to the best in the nation. Awarded a Bronze Star Medal for efforts in combat as an Expeditionary Mission Support Group Commander in Iraq’s Sunni Triangle in 2004, Carrington Firmin has received many honors and accolades such as the Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster, the 2023 National Latina Symposium Veteran of the Year, UTSA President’s Distinguished Diversity Award, United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce National Latina Leader, Governor of Texas’ Yellow Rose, National Diversity Council’s Trailblazer and Most Powerful and Influential Women in Texas, Texas Diversity Council’s Greater San Antonio LGBT Ally, Hispanic Women’s Network of Texas Trailblazer Award, Distinguished Alumni from Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Community Service Award from National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and a Military Writers Society of America book award.