A former Army officer with two graduate degrees from Harvard, Shelane Etchison is the first independent candidate to make it onto the ballot in a North Carolina congressional race. Following the attacks on 9/11, Etchison was commissioned as an Army officer and deployed to Iraq. She led soldiers as a Military Police Platoon Leader and Executive Officer. Upon returning, Etchison moved to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where she was specially selected for a Special Operations pilot program. After 11 years of service, Etchison left the military and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MPP from Harvard Kennedy School of Government. After seeing the first hand consequences of living under authoritarian rule in other countries, Etchison decided to run as an independent candidate for the US House in NC’s District 9. Etchison represents crucial forward values: fighting partisan polarization, ending special-interest influence, and combatting partisan gerrymandering.