Pregnant at 14, DC's Top Cop at 39 — The Unbelievable Story of Cathy Lanier

The gist

1. Lanier says seeing her son's total dependency on her removed any ambiguity about what she had to do, which made it easier to act.
2. She used employer tuition reimbursement at a secretary job to earn a degree one class at a time, lowering the barrier to going back to school.
3. At 23 she applied to the Metropolitan Police Department specifically because their job posting advertised tuition reimbursement, trading dangerous work for long-term financial mobility.
4. Lanier scored 256 on her GED when only 255 was required, illustrating that crossing the threshold matters more than the margin by which you clear it.