It’s 9:45 a.m. on a Thursday at the Waffle House on Burbank Drive, and even after the breakfast rush, it’s busy. The parking lot is packed, every booth is full, and the only open seats are a few at the counter. One cook is on the grill, a trainee is shadowing seasoned staff, and a line of ticket orders are waiting to be filled. The restaurant is short-staffed, but the energy is steady – in part because of LeAnn.
LeAnn, a Parole Project client who has been home for 16 months, moves like a conductor in a symphony of sizzling bacon, idle chatter and poured coffee. She’s training the new hire, assisting the cook, taking orders and serving food.
Jared Ogonor, manager of the Waffle House on Lee Drive, a couple of miles away, walks in with two team members to lend a hand to the understaffed crew. He makes his way to the other side of the counter and leans in toward LeAnn. “Give me an assessment,” he said. “How’s it going?”
“The assessment is it’s good,” she replied, without missing a beat. There’s a reason Ogonor leans on LeAnn for help.
“LeAnn is awesome,” Ogonor said. “You can depend on certain people, and LeAnn is someone who can always help. She’s always dependable and always on time – even though she has another job. She helped me open my store. She’s a team player and level-headed, even when it’s busy.”
Jarrell Rogers, district manager for Waffle House, calls her “one of the best employees I could ask for.”
“She is on time every day. She communicates. Her customer service skills are amazing, and she shows up with a smile on her face,” he said. “She is exactly what I look for in a server.”
LeAnn is more than just a reliable employee – she’s scrappy, determined, resourceful, and she is grateful for her second chance. After 20 years in prison, LeAnn returned home in June 2024 – transformed. “I was 18 when I was charged,” she said. “I came home a grown woman. I had goals. I said this time I was going to get this.”
And she did.
Not long after completing the first phase of Parole Project’s reentry program she secured an apartment and purchased a car almost simultaneously, and started a demanding work routine – mornings at Waffle House from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., followed by evening shifts at Benny’s Car Wash from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., five days a week. She also found time to intern at a medical laboratory in Metairie hoping to find a career in healthcare, a field she chose because of its purpose and her faith in redemption.
“I participated in taking a life,” she says. “If there’s one way I could give back to humanity, it’s by saving one life. Just one. For all the hurt and pain, I caused, I want to give something back.”
Born and raised in New Orleans, LeAnn loved to dance when she was a kid, but the innocence of her childhood was cut short. She grew up in an unstable, broken home where both of her parents struggled with drug addiction. She was sexually abused at a young age and self-harmed to numb the internal pain by drinking alcohol, taking drugs and cutting and burning herself.
Because both of her parents were addicts, her grandmother raised her. “God blessed me with opportunity,” she said. “My grandma brought me up in church and I made my confirmation.”
But eventually, she dropped out of school and spent most of her childhood cycling in and out of juvenile detention facilities. She welcomed incarceration as a respite from her chaotic life.
“I was angry,” she says. “I didn’t know how to cycle my emotions. I was taught what happened in your home, stayed in your home, and I turned everything into anger. Jail was like a vacation. I didn’t care.”
Everything changed when her mother died in 2015, while LeAnn was still in prison. “Before my mom died, we had cleaned the slate and grew a good relationship,” she said. “I looked forward to hugging her outside of prison. That hurt.”
Her mother’s death was a turning point in her life. She befriended a mentor in prison, rediscovered her spirituality and love of dance, and joined a spiritual dance team in prison. She also earned her high school diploma along with an associate’s degree in communications and a minor in business and studied cosmetology. LeAnn is also a certified welder.
“God has a funny way of leading you to water when you need it,” she says. “I was made to fly. I was made to soar.”
When she isn’t working, she’s spending time with her girlfriend, Marnia, and her emotional support dog, Diva, who turns one this month. By this time next year, she wants to own a home with a big backyard and a pool, in a quiet neighborhood tucked away from the interstate. She is confident in her future success and knows that her past is in the rearview mirror.
“You never despise small beginnings,” she said. “Everybody is born to be great – it’s you who chooses to settle. I’m ready for greatness. I feel like I have been walking through small beginnings and now it’s time to start elevating.”
