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Cassandra Friend, who suffered three back fractures on active duty, has emerged as a highly-decorated nursing graduate and veterans liaison at the Charlotte campus.
Cassandra Friend wanted to stay in the Army. But her body insisted otherwise.
“You really start to think about the long-term implications of your actions,” says Friend, who suffered multiple back fractures while serving as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army’s armored tank unit. “How do I say I’m living a life in service of other people if I’m too prideful to admit it was time to find another way to serve people?”
Since leaving the Army in March 2023, Friend has become a fixture at Northeastern’s campus in Charlotte, North Carolina. She graduated last May from the accelerated nursing program while showing leadership on a variety of fronts (more on that in a moment).
She is currently enrolled full-time in nurse practitioner school and has started a consulting firm, Kavalyn Custom Solutions, that assists service members and injured veterans with understanding and navigation of their benefits, transitions from active service and other issues.
As if she weren’t busy enough, Friend continues to serve as a veteran military liaison for Northeastern students in Charlotte.
“One of the main focuses of Cassie’s role is to engage with our military-connected students,” says Andy McCarty, an Air Force veteran who directs the Dolce Center for the Advancement of Veterans and Servicemembers (CAVS) at Northeastern. “Unless these students self-identify, we may never know that [the military] is in their background.
“Cassie is able to create relationships, network and present to groups of new students as they orient themselves at Northeastern. As she builds this community, she can also ask an important question: ‘What can we do for you?’”
That question defines Friend, who as a high school student in Sumner, Washington, created a nonprofit focused on lowering teenage depression and suicide rates. Friend gave motivational talks to solicit donations that she turned into restaurant gift cards — providing at-risk teenagers with the means to hang out with their peers after school.
Friend’s working relationship with Dolce CAVS arose from her experiences as a nursing student at the Charlotte campus.
“I found that what we were missing was that person to help point me in the right direction and give me the information that I needed while trying to use my [military] benefits for school — but also to get me connected in the community and help me find those resources around me,” Friend says. “Through conversations with Andy and the faculty at Northeastern, we all saw the need. And so we’ve created this position to act as a liaison between Boston, Charlotte, the students and the community.”
Friend has taken on all kinds of challenges in the 10 years since she graduated from high school. She had been working as a medication technician when she joined the Air Force Reserves — drawn in part by the service of her grandfather in Marine special operations units. She quickly transitioned to the Army as an officer while devoting herself to physical fitness.
“I was going on active duty so I had extra time to get ready,” she says. “I was running upwards of 80 to 100 miles a week. I think my two-mile time was 12 minutes. Don’t ask me to do that anymore.”
She suffered three fractures of her back while on duty — one in a tank incident, another in a stumble during night training with her gear on and the third in a car accident.
“I was having trouble with grip strength and trouble with sensation and feeling,” Friend says of her medically-forced decision to leave the Army. “I was having some bladder issues. I couldn’t feel myself pee, that kind of thing. I found out about the possibility of infertility.”
She turned, ironically, to nursing.
“I knew that whatever I did, I wanted to do it in a mindset of service to other people,” Friend says.
Consider her many responsibilities in the midst of her accelerated coursework in Charlotte. In addition to her support of Northeastern veterans, Friend took on a full-time role as a director of federal performance improvement and analysis for a government consulting firm while holding a position as a nurse scholar for Atrium Health in Charlotte. She also started the National Student Nurses Association Charter at the Charlotte campus and served as its first president — altogether resulting in her recognition by the Lux. Veritas. Virtus. society, which honors exceptional graduate students at Northeastern.
Friend says her energetic approach was part of a larger strategy.
“People who transition out of the Army face their highest risks mental-health-wise within 12 to 18 months of getting out,” Friend says. “So I needed to stay busy and I needed to stay motivated.”
By way of her devotion to service and her loyalty to the armed forces and its veterans, it’s as though Friend has been treating every day as Veterans Day.
“Cassandra exhibits enthusiasm and initiative in everything she does,” says Grace Buttriss, director of the accelerated nursing program at Northeastern. “Her experiences in the military provided Casandra with a unique perspective of the needs of both veterans and students.
“She fosters connections among veterans, creating a sense of community and belonging, which is vital for the well-being of students,” Buttriss says. “Cassie is an effective liaison because of her personality and willingness to support and guide veterans.
“She has significant knowledge because of her career in the Army, her successful transition to civilian life and success in an accelerated nursing program while working.
“She is an amazing individual.”