STRONGWILL

April Brooks is the founder of StrongWILL with a passion to help others who have struggled with addition.  After the passing of her beloved brother, William Douglas West, she knew she wanted to take action and desired to make an impact in our community.  April has spent most of her life in Hampton Roads and has always believed in giving back to the community, helping others, and advocating for causes she believes in.  She has a Bachelor's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Health, PE, and Exercise Science with a concentration in Community Health Education.  She is married to her loving husband, Nathan Brooks, works fulltime, and has three beautiful StrongWILLed daughters ( 2 two legged and one 4 legged).  She currently works at the Naval Safety Center as a Safety Data Specialist.  

Born and raised in Suffolk, VA.  Nathan has always enjoyed being outdoors and volunteering.  He works full time at Norfolk Naval Shipyard as an Engineer Technician specializing in Submarine Overhaul and Maintenance.  He married his beautiful wife, April, in 2015 and moved back to Suffolk in 2020.  He is the father of two beautiful daughters.  He has spent time with April organizing StrongWILL and watch her strive to make it a successful non-profit.  He enjoys playing golf and spending time outside with his family including his dog Stella on nice days  walking the neighborhood for exercise.  

Sherri grew up in Suffolk, VA.  Sherri has spend her school and professional career focusing on helping individuals and families through a variety of emotional and  behavioral health concerns.  She currently works full time at Genesis Counseling Center.  She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Radford University and Master of Arts in Community-Clinical Psychology from Norfolk State University.  She earned her Ph.D. Clinical Psychology at Walden University.  Aside from her friendship with April and Nathan, she fell in love with their passion to create StrongWILL and was moved by their efforts to create change in our community.  Sherri became involved in StrongWILL because of its mission to support local community agencies that focus on advocating, supporting, educating the community, as a means to help individuals through recovery from addiction.