Desiree Powell is a highly trained certified medical laboratory specialist currently employed by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. She currently works a clinical laboratory technician within the Laboratory of Comparative Pathology where she has been employed since 2008.

Desiree Powell received her certifications, licenses, and overall training while serving in the United States Army National Guard from 2006 to 2012. In addition to the pursuit of her education and career, she volunteered for a combat tour to Afghanistan where she worked alongside doctors seeing to injured comrades and civilians.

Desiree Powell enlisted in the Army National Guard in 2006 in order to receive training as a medical laboratory specialist and obtain a job as a laboratory technician. She graduated in the top of her class in every single military school she has ever attended and was in a position of honor as a squad leader. Desiree Powell is an Army Warrior Leader Course Graduate on the Commandant's List, meaning she graduated in the top 20th percentile, in January of 2011.

Desiree Powell volunteered for a combat tour in Afghanistan where she aided doctors seeing to injured soldiers and civilians. While on tour, she preformed clinical testing ordered by physicians in hematology, chemistry, urinalysis, coagulation, microbiology, and parasitology, she conducted regular maintenance of analyzers, performed quality control, maintained inventory of lab supplies, performed specimen collection, and aided the medical staff at the United States Embassy in setting up laboratory services as well as providing clinical testing in their medical facility.

Desiree Powell describes her time in Afghanistan as hectic. Placed right into the thick of combat, she had to deal often with the difficult task of performing medical tests on comrades she had come to know and respect.

During her tour in Afghanistan, Desiree Powell realized that the world of laboratory research wasn't enough to satisfy her needs in the medical field. The doctors and other medical professionals she worked alongside inspired her to pursue a career as a physician assistant. This gives her the ability to treat patients more directly thus feeling like she is making more of an impact in a person's life.