Kendra Garrett, licensed insurance professional and communications specialist at Sylvia A. Garrett & Associates Agency in Columbus, Ohio, is the recipient of the 2024 Big “I" $1,000 Young Agents Legislative Conference Scholarship.

Presented each year to one young agent who is a first-time attendee at the Big “I" Legislative Conference, the scholarship enables the recipient to attend the conference free of charge. The scholarship was established in 2003 to honor Maurice Herndon, who was named head of the Big “I" national's Washington, D.C., office in 1949. Herndon coordinated the Big “I" state associations and built the government affairs and grassroots operations via his extensive travel, passion for education and hard work.

Garrett resonates with Herndon's legacy of education and community impact. Her love for the insurance industry is fueled by her desire to empower her community in “not only providing clients with coverage but also ensuring they understand their policies, the significance of financial protection and how insurance plays a vital role in generational wealth-building—particularly in underserved communities," she says.

Garrett has a long-held passion for communication, earning her degree in public relations. However, joining the agency owned by her mother, Sylvia A. Garrett, president & CEO, wasn't something she'd seriously considered until last year. And when she did, her foray into the family agency was intended to focus on the agency's social media and PR.

“After three days, I knew I needed to get licensed," she says. “I fell in love and now I'm like, 'Why haven't I been doing this forever?'"

In addition to educating the agency's clients, Garrett invests her time in her community, including volunteering at the National Black Arts Foundation and volunteering with a church robotics camp to inspire students' interests in STEM and financial literacy. She also serves on the Ohio Insurance Agents (OIA) NextGen committee and on the board of the Columbus chapter of the National African American Insurance Association (NAAIA). 

By attending the 2025 Big “I" Legislative Conference, Garrett intends to gain a greater understanding of insurance industry “rules, stipulations, legislation and bills and how they're all integrated, so we can change them for the better," she says. “I want to understand so I can turn around and explain to people why these decisions were made."

“It's always about the community," she says, pointing out that “insurance is community based—it's literally the laws of large numbers and multiplied risks."

Garrett emphasizes the importance of engaging in industry advocacy as she prepares to transition into a leadership role in the family agency, noting that understanding the legislative and regulatory landscape is crucial to the continued success of the independent agency system. 

 “You need people like me who can exist in all these different worlds—who can go toe-to-toe and read the legislation and be on Capitol Hill, and then turn around to the community and say, 'Okay, this is how this affects your policy,'" she says. “We need people to exist in all these worlds to make it work."

AnneMarie McPherson Spears is IA news editor.