As the founder of the Veteran and Military Affairs department at The University of Texas at San Antonio, she consolidated all veteran support services on campus, started priority registration and a tailored veteran orientation program, instituted scholarships for military affiliated students and created case studies and a Veteran Culture Competence training module. Previously as Associate Provost for Faculty/Student Diversity & Recruitment, she founded the UTSA Top Scholar and the Presidential Distinguished Diversity awards programs and led the addition of Gender Identity/Gender Expression to the university’s nondiscrimination policy.

In 2022, she was featured in Hispanic Executive Magazine, was a participating artist in Uniting US’s From Conflict to Creativity at the Library of Congress, and keynoted events across the country. In 2021, two of her poems were featured in a national art exhibit at the Military Women’s Memorial in Washington, DC. In 2020, she authored an opinion editorial in the San Antonio Express News, Women protecting their country, yet military fails to protect them and a transition article in Latina Style Magazine, A Seamless Military to Civilian Workforce Transition: Consejos Para Usted. Featured in VFW Magazine (June/July 2021), in Military Officer Magazine (October 2021), LatinBiz Today’s Everyday People Make the World Go Round in 2020, on San Antonio’s Movers and Shakers radio show in 2019 and in San Antonio Magazine in 2018. In 2016, Carrington Firmin authored Deploying Leadership: Steady Skills to Serve in Any Environment in the Phi Kappa Phi Forum and authored a book chapter titled “The Transition: Colonel to Associate Provost,” in Adapt and Overcome, Essays on the Student Veteran Experience. In 2013, she co-authored a book chapter titled “Serving Student Veterans at the University of Texas at San Antonio: Accomplishments and Challenges,” in Building Bridges for Student Success: A Sourcebook for Colleges and Universities. Her research, Hispanics: An Untapped Leadership Resource authored years ago continues its relevancy today as she provides expertise and guidance to the AF’s Hispanic Engagement and Advancement Team and to AF ROTC.
 

Carrington Firmin 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. She was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for her efforts in combat as an Expeditionary Mission Support Group Commander in Iraq’s Sunni Triangle, and has received many honors and accolades such as the Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster, UTSA’s President’s Distinguished Diversity Award, the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce National Latina Leader award, the Governor of Texas’ Yellow Rose award, the National Diversity Council’s Trailblazer and Most Powerful and Influential Women in Texas awards, the Texas Diversity Council’s Greater San Antonio LGBT Ally Award, the Hispanic Women’s Network of Texas Trailblazer Award and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Texas A&M University Kingsville.
 

Carrington Firmin serves as a member of the inaugural Department of Defense Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, the Department of Veterans Affairs Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans, a member of the Texas A&M University-Kingsville University’s Foundation Board of Trustees, the first woman board member of the Hispanic Veterans Leadership Alliance, member of the Veterans Healthy Minds Advisory Council – South Texas, the Military Officers Association of America, the Military Writing Society of America and is a life member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Women Veterans Alliance. She holds the National Diversity Council’s Certified Diversity Professional designation and is a Certified True Colors® Facilitator.