She was the first woman to receive her master's degree in military arts and sciences from the United States Army Command and General Staff College.

She is also the first African-American nurse corps officer to graduate from the United States Army War College.

When she retired, in 1993, she was serving as commanding officer of Fort Belvoir, in Fairfax County, Virginia.

Her father, Otha Leach, was a sharecropper and the family lived in Wake County, North Carolina, on a tobacco farm.

[2] Leach joined the United States Army in order to pay for her nursing school education.

The following year she attended the United States Army Command and General Staff College, graduating in 1976.

[2] In 1978 she was posted to Frankfurt, Germany, where she started as assistant chief at the Department of Nursing at the 97th General Hospital.

[1] She relocated to Fort Sheridan and headed the nurse recruitment program there,[2] while attending the United States Army War College.

[citation needed] In the 2024 United States presidential election, Adams-Ender endorsed Kamala Harris.