We were lucky to catch up with Rashadah Jordan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rashadah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

The biggest risk I have ever taken was moving to Texas alone. I had no one here. Of course, it has been a few years and now I am established but at the time, I knew I had to be here. I just did not know what I was getting myself into. I overall felt like Texas was home. It was strange but I tried getting here for 2 years. When I finally thought I was leaving, the pandemic hit. I tried during, but of course, no one was moving during that time. At the time I was a new graduate starting my career. The job I had really did not mesh well with what I wanted to do long-term. The hours were nice but the workload, boundaries, diversity, and lack of respect were not. I knew I wanted to move but when I took a trip to Texas with my mom, it was confirmed that Texas was home.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a physician assistant by day but on the side, I run a podcast named “Resilience x Faith w/ Reese Jordan”. I have created journals, I create Youtube videos, author of “Unfold my Ashes: Silent tear that became my rebirth”, and I am a founder of my mentorship program “Dreams Inspire Life” for prospective PA students. I do a lot and I never sit down. I got into my industry of PA school because it was a long-time dream of mine, but the entrepreneur hustle was something completely new for me. No one in my immediate family was self-employed therefore I had to learn that industry on my own. I still am learning. Creating journals and everything else was a HUGE risk to invest in. I am most proud of myself for my perseverance and for sticking with it. I am happy I did not give up but I am surrounded by others that are rooting for me.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I can from a single-parent household. We were not wealthy by any means but we were considered middle class. My mother worked hard as a nurse for 30 years. I knew I wanted to be in medicine but I wanted to go further in my education. I decided on PA school before my first year in college. Once I applied and got accepted. I was able to start PA School. I knew it was going to be hard but I had no idea. We are trained on the medical model like doctors. We learn everything in the human body in 27 months. I did not know at the time I had an attention deficit because females present differently and are more likely to internalize their symptoms. I graduated, passed my boards and started work before i was diagnosed.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think my courage to speak up and educate the community on mental health helped to build my reputation. There are not enough African American providers in mental health. There are not enough providers speaking up. There is a shortage world wide in mental health. Speaking up about it, and educating people on disorders and treatment made a difference.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theresilientpa.com
• Instagram: theresilientpac
• Youtube: youtube.com/Rjord3