The Chattanooga Bar Association’s choice of Jennifer Wright as the 2012 recipient of the Liberty Bell Award reveals a heritage of community service in her family. Although Wright never knew her great-grandfather, Gordon Street, Sr., who received the award in 1979, he passed down through Wright’s grandparents and parents the drive to be more than a citizen of a community, but also a contributing member.
One week after the May 10 ceremony during which the bar presented the honor to Wright, the lieutenant with the Chattanooga Housing Authority answered questions about her family and her desire to make a difference in the lives of others.
Your family has lived in Chattanooga a long time.
My great-grandparents moved here at the turn of the previous century. My great-grandfather was the owner of Wheland Foundry.
How did you come to work for the Chattanooga Housing Authority? Did you ever want to do anything else?
I had always enjoyed music, so I went to Loyola Unversity in New Orleans. I wanted to be a music therapist. When I got there, music stopped being fun; I was being graded, which took all of the pleasure out of it, so I put on the brakes. I didn’t know what else to do, so I took the Myers-Briggs test, which said I needed to be an audiologist or a police officer. So I moved back to Chattanooga and took some criminal justice classes while I figured out where I wanted to go to college. They made sense to me, and I enjoy logical things. I graduated from Appalachain State in North Carolina in 2000 and started my training with the Chattanooga Police Department in 2001. I was there until 2003, when I came here. I helped to launch the fraud program in 2004.
What led you down the path of volunteerism?
Everyone in my family has been involved in the community for as long as I can remember, so volunteering is a natural thing for me to do. I had seen what the members of my family had done and the impact they had made, and I decided I needed to do my part as well.
Serving less fortunate people in the community requires compassion. Does that compassion make it difficult for you to deal with certain situations that come up when you are investing a tenant of the Chattanooga Housing Authority?
A tenant’s rent is based on his or her income, and some of our residents do not report their income accurately, which means they’re paying less rent than they’re supposed to. So when I meet with a tenant, it’s a civil issue. They have breached their agreement and owe the Housing Authority money. I try to be compassionate about their position but also be mindful that if they had done what they were supposed to do, they wouldn’t be in that position. People will sometimes say they don’t understand how I can sleep at night, but I have to remember that by getting one bad tenant out, I allow a hopefully good one in.
Does that part of your job wear on you?
It did at first, but I try to handle it professionally rather than letting my feelings get in the way.
How did you become involved with Metropolitan Ministries?
Executive director Becky Welchel was my high school piano teacher, so when she asked me to help her start it, I couldn’t say no. I’m currently vice chairman of the board. It’s a great organization. Basically, we try to keep people from becoming homeless. That’s a struggle because some of our clients need more foresight. They’re all about what’s happening today and don’t think about tomorrow, so they come in on Tuesday with a ridiculously large electric bill, and they’re losing their power on Friday.
So you have to balance your compassion for people with the reality of their situation.
On my job, I have to appear to be as tough as nails, and I struggle with doing that. By volunteering to serve outside of work, I’m able to balance out the side of me that has to be tough with the part of me that’s compassionate.
We published a picture in our last issue of Honorable Reverend Sam Paybe giving you a hug at the Law Day Celebration. He has a look of fatherly pride on his face.
I love Sam. He is the greatest human being.
Talk about your involvement with St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
St. Paul’s is the only church I have regularly attended. I’m the clerk of the vestry, which is the board of directors, so I go to a lot of meetings.
Is your faith part of what motivates you to volunteer?
To be a good Christian and a faithful follower of Jesus, I believe you have to do things he would do, and there are all kinds of stories in the Bible about him healing the sick and feeding the hungry, so yes.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
[Laughs and adjusts her bulletproof vest] I don’t have a lot of free time. I do like to watch “Sponge Bob” with my 5 year old, Sara. She’s hooked on the show. And I like reading James Patterson novels. I enjoy mystery thrillers.
Anything else that would help us to paint a complete picture?
That’s me in a nutshel.