Three women were among the 21 recipients at the 30th annual Valor Awards banquet Wednesday that recognizes courageous acts of first responders in the region.
In a usually male-dominated field, the three women — VCU Health and Virginia State Police Med Flight nurse Shannon Cooper, Richmond Police Department officer Brooke Spence, and Chesterfield County firefighter Alicia Monahan — stood out. No woman had received one of the awards since 2015.
“It’s great to be acknowledged,” Cooper said after the ceremony, speaking both as a woman and a health care provider — a combination that she said is underrepresented among first responders. She is one of two women in her unit made up of five nurses from VCU Health, four Chesterfield County firefighters and eight pilots from the Virginia State Police.