By Denver Mackey
Contributing Writer
Celebrating Mother’s Day, Cassandra Britt-Nickerson talked with the Sentinel about her career and her organization, Get Fit with Britt Nick, a nonprofit dedicated to helping women of color develop the nutrition and fitness tools necessary to create a positive health legacy in their homes and communities.
Most recently, Britt-Nickerson completed a 31-year career with the Los Angeles Police Department. In her three plus decades with the force, her working assignments included Detectives, Undercover Juvenile Narcotics, Field Sergeant, Anti-Terrorist Division and Undercover Vice.
Her last assignment was the Assistant Officer in Charge of Recruitment and Employment Division. Britt-Nickerson was “the poster child” for LAPD and was featured on numerous recruitment campaigns for them. She retired from LAPD in 2021.
In addition to being a wife, a mother, mentor, educator, fitness coach and personal trainer, Britt-Nickerson is a cancer survivor. Britt says she is living proof of how being physically fit can help save your life.
Diagnosed on her birthday in 2015, she says through God’s grace, early detection, aggressive treatment (including numerous surgeries and chemotherapy), healthy diet, regular exercise, a positive attitude and good support, she is winning the battle.
She is a Los Angeles native, having grown up in what was called South Central L.A., but is now known as South Los Angeles. A Washington Prep alumnus, she was a cheerleader and a scholar.
Always active, she was introduced to fitness formally during her undergraduate studies at UC Davis. She ultimately received her Bachelor’s degree from California State University at Long Beach and is also a Certified Personal Trainer.
In addition to operating “Get Fit with Britt-Nick,” Britt-Nickerson also runs the “Get Fit with Britt-Nick Boot Camp” in Los Angeles and hosts an annual “Women’s Fitness Retreat.” She says it is her goal to help others, particularly in the African-American and Latino community, to get fit, stay fit and redefine, celebrate and interact in order to positively impact health and wellness to generate a healthy lifestyle legacy.
Relating what inspired her to start her fitness organization and the rewarding aspects of working with women, she explained, “I was always into fitness and always get a lot questions from women who come up to me and are afraid of weight lifting and I feel like there has always been this stigma about the muscle being so gigantic and taking the femininity out of it.
“Though fitness has evolved, when I first started my classes, I started with weights, but we [women] don’t know how beneficial weightlifting really is for our bone density, strong bones, and how good it is for your body. A lot of us stick to cardio, or Zumba classes and I wanted to introduce weightlifting as something that does not have to be intimidating,” said Britt-Nickerson.
“I get a lot of people that say when they go to the gym they usually stick to cardio machines and they get intimidated by the free weight sections and see all the guys and it feels good to teach people how to use the weights, and gain more confidence in working out and see how much of a difference it makes for people.”
Britt-Nickerson is no stranger to working out and has competed in and won numerous bodybuilding contests. In her fitness business, she has worked with the Los Angeles Police Department Chief of Police and even people rehabilitating from catastrophic injury and illness. She won the the Live Saving Medal Award from the LAPD for saving a man’s life who was attempting to jump off the 110 Freeway in Los Angeles.
In the spirit of Mother’s Day, Britt-Nickerson wants to send the message, “Celebrate yourself, whether you are a mom or not, and if you do have one, celebrate her. We don’t know how long we have on this earth to have a mom.
“Mother’s Day can be very hard and spend as much time with her as you can and gain that wisdom, have those conversations, give her those flowers, and celebrate her now. Nobody is your biggest supporter than your mom and you cannot take that for granted now.”
Starting on May 18, Britt will host her annual health and fitness retreat, Glow Up in Montego Bay, Jamaica, where women can look forward to “a sense of renewal, experiences that some of us have not been exposed to, be out of the country, do things you normally would not have done on our own,” she said.
“We are going to take some baggage with us and leave it! We are going to wake up and enjoy each day and learn something from one another!”
Stay tuned for more information on the Glow Up Retreat in the coming weeks, and find Cassandra Britt-Nickerson’s website https://www.getfitwithbrittnick.com/ and Instagram @getfitwithbrittnick here for fitness classes and how to get involved.
