Kelsi Sheren
Kelsi Sheren is a Canadian military veteran and former artillery gunner who deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and later founded Brass & Unity, a jewelry and eyewear brand built around spent shell casings that donates part of its profits to veterans’ charities; she is the author of the memoir Brass & Unity.
Contents11 sections
Key facts
2009Deploys to Afghanistan With the Canadian Military
She competed in Tae Kwon Do from age four to nineteen as a champion and holds a second-degree black belt.[1]
She recalls being moved by an old-war-era female soldier she met on a bus; she dropped out of college and enlisted the next day.[2]
She deployed to Afghanistan as a 19-year-old artillery gunner.[3]
Her publisher says she served in Afghanistan in 2009 alongside Canadian, American and British forces.[1]
The description of her memoir says she joined a British unit in Afghanistan for house-to-house insurgent patrols and saw a brother-in-arms killed.[4]
She says that as a woman she was sent on a different job, an operation that ended her military career.[2]
2014Starts a Jewelry Brand
She taught herself jewelry-making at her kitchen table and started in 2014 as Her Wearables, later renaming it Brass & Unity for a more unisex feel; BRASS stands for “Bravery Retired Assistant Soldier Support.”[5]
Each handmade piece carries a re-forged, logo-stamped casing fired by the Canadian military, and 20 percent of each sale went to charities such as Honour House Canada.[5]
2018Joins a Charity Board
In the year to May 2018 Brass & Unity gave Honour House over $10,000, and she was invited onto its board as its only veteran.[5]
2020Nominated for the CAFA Fashion Impact Award
Her publisher says Brass & Unity grew into a jewelry and eyewear brand and was nominated in 2020 for the Canadian Arts & Fashion Awards (CAFA) Fashion Impact Award.[1]
In November 2020 she said the company gave 20 percent of profits to 26 veterans’ charities in the United States and Canada.[2]
May 2021Receives a CAFA Honourable Mention
Brass & Unity was listed among the CAFA Fashion Impact Award nominees alongside Knix and Lesley Hampton.[6]
At the seventh CAFA gala, broadcast live from Toronto in May 2021, Lesley Hampton won the Fashion Impact Award and Brass & Unity received an honourable mention in that category.[7]
October 14, 2021Appears on the Lex Fridman Podcast
On October 14, 2021, she appeared on episode 230 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, whose outline covers World War II, becoming a soldier, artillery, deployment to Afghanistan, the Taliban and how war changes people.[8]
July 11, 2023Publishes the Memoir Brass & Unity
On July 11, 2023, Knox Press published her 304-page memoir Brass & Unity: One Woman’s Journey Through the Hell of Afghanistan and Back, distributed by Simon & Schuster.[9]
The book came out five years after she began writing it; actor Neal McDonough secured the TV and film rights to her story, and she also launched a podcast.[3]
October 28, 2025Testifies Before the Commons Veterans Affairs Committee
On October 28, 2025, she appeared as an individual at meeting 9 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs, part of its study “Suicide Prevention Among Veterans.”[10]
In her testimony she said more than 20 veterans had confirmed to her that Veterans Affairs Canada offered them medical assistance in dying (MAiD) and that she had proof; Conservative MP Blake Richards asked whether she could substantiate it. Liberal MP Sean Casey responded that only one employee had been shown to act inappropriately, that policies were updated on August 23, 2022, that counselling MAiD is not within the department’s mandate, and urged that evidence be brought forward for investigation.[11]
As of October 2026: Hosts The Kelsi Sheren Perspective
As of October 2026, her Substack describes her as a combat veteran, host of The Kelsi Sheren Perspective and best-selling author who covers MAiD and politics.[12]
Related Organizations, Websites, and Public Accounts
Brass & Unity: Official website: https://brassandunity.com/ (opens in a new window)[8]
X: Public account: https://x.com/kelsiburns (opens in a new window)[8]
Instagram: Public account: https://www.instagram.com/kelsie_sheren (opens in a new window)[8]
Sources
- Authors Kelsi Sheren Archive | Permuted Press (opens in a new window)
- Meet Kelsi Shreren the Founder of Brass and Unity (opens in a new window)
- Canadian veteran pens memoir to heal from PTSD | Globalnews.ca (opens in a new window)
- Brass & Unity By Kelsi Sheren (EA3) | Canex (opens in a new window)
- Brass and Unity raises money and awareness for military veterans. - Canadian Military Family Magazine (opens in a new window)
- When Are The 2021 Canadian Arts & Fashion Awards? (opens in a new window)
- CAFA Awards 2021: Winners & Nominees - STYLE Canada (opens in a new window)
- #230 - Kelsi Sheren: War, Artillery, PTSD, and Love | Lex Fridman Podcast (opens in a new window)
- Brass & Unity (opens in a new window)
- Notice of Meeting - ACVA (45-1) - No. 9 - House of Commons of Canada (opens in a new window)
- Evidence - ACVA (45-1) - No. 9 - House of Commons of Canada (opens in a new window)
- EXCLUSIVE: The Nova Scotia RCMP Veterans’ Association IS TARGETING VETERANS. (opens in a new window)