She enjoyed a 35-year career as a tax lawyer before her 2013 retirement from a partner-level position at Ernst & Young, and is now a full-time genealogist focused on teaching and writing. Her research centers on African American families that survived American slavery. She has been a trustee of the Board for Certification of Genealogists since 2016, and served three terms as BCG President from 2019–2022.

In 2021 LaBrenda was elected as the 170th Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists (ASG), the field’s honorary scholarly society. As declared by ASG: “Her educational publications include a guide to researching African-American family history in Laurens County, South Carolina, where she has roots—a primer with important methodological lessons applicable nationally—and an authoritative guide to genealogical research in the state of Alabama.” She currently serves on the editorial board of both the National Genealogical Society Quarterly and the Journal of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society.

In addition to coordinating the African American Track at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, she teaches various subjects on the faculty of the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, the Genealogical Institute on Federal Records, and the Institute of Genealogy & Historical Research.

For more information see her website https://www.LabGarrettGenealogy.com.