Women We Love: Jackie Bright

Jackie Bright, who leads the Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/Albemarle with passion, sometimes has to remind herself focus more on the big picture than the details; something that isn’t always easy.

“My mind is constantly abuzz with ideas and I struggle against a self-imposed sense of urgency,” says Bright, who is also the co-chair of the Midtown Business Association and serves on the Charlottesville/Albemarle Commission on Children and Families.

As with many other nonprofits, Bright’s “typical” workday just isn’t. Every day offers new challenges, but Bright summed it up with: “My ‘typical’ workday consists of building a better mousetrap, eating lunch and repeating.”

Bright received her degree in Communication Studies with an emphasis on Rhetoric and Public Discourse from the University of Montana. It was a teacher there who inspired her career path.

“In college, I took a series of rhetoric classes from the most articulate woman I have ever met,” she says. “She had a brilliant way of analyzing communication and a passion for equality, it was completely inspiring. She encouraged me to explore activism, which ultimately led to an interest in nonprofit work.”

Bright, who is close to her parents and sister, and enjoys time with her “loving and lovely partner and passive aggressive cat,” doesn’t know if people can live a “balanced life” exactly.

“I always laugh when I see people celebrating amazon women. It’s as if the dashboard for a woman’s success has become having children, a healthy marriage, a clean house, perfect physique, a good job and her ability to employ superhuman tactics to keep it all in balance,” Bright says. “You never really see that ability emphasized or celebrated in men. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE juggling a lot of projects, but at the end of the day, it’s not about balancing it all. It’s about focusing on what’s important, letting go of what isn’t, and having the courage to not define yourself by what you aren’t doing.”

With her crazy schedule, Bright does have “a self-soothe menu,” an idea someone recommended to her. “This deceptively simple task became a light-bulb endeavor for me,” she notes. “My list ranges from running and biking, to baking and wearing sweat pants all day.”

For Bright, her most rewarding professional experiences happen at work. “To me, business is a beautiful, complex machine—an intricate system of people and information exchange replacing levers and pulleys,” she says. “My most rewarding professional moments are identifying and implementing ways to make that machine run faster, smoother, stronger and better.”

The best advice she ever received came from her former employer Peter Thompson at the Senior Center in Charlottesville.

“I was 28 when I became an executive director,” Bright says. “I was young, overjoyed and flat-out terrified. In a moment of panic, I reached out to my former employer Peter Thompson, a trusted friend and mentor. I will never forget his words that day: ‘They believe in you. It’s time for you to believe in you.’”
She’s not afraid to be wrong and she appreciates when others embrace that ability in themselves, too.

“My biggest pet peeve is when people fight for the right to be right, even when it’s at the complete detriment to everything they hold dear. Being wrong is a source of humor, art, illumination, individuality and change,” Bright says.

If she were to give advice to someone considering this field it would be: “Be tough, be smart, be personable, but don’t take things personally.”

8 Things You Might Not Know about Jackie Bright…

1.  Who is your favorite author and why? J.K. Rowling. And not because her stories are delightful (which they are), but because her rags-to-riches transformation is an absolute inspiration.

2.  Favorite thing about Charlottesville?  Fireflies

3.  What is your favorite hobby/pastime? My idea of bliss is sharing a meal with friends and family.

4.  What is one of your hidden talents/skills?  Probably the thing that would most surprise people is how good I am at video games.

5.  What is your guilty pleasure? A dirty martini

6.  What is your favorite movie and why?  Indiana Jones. I was convinced I was going to be the next “Indiana.” That is, until I took my first archeology class in college. I couldn’t remember any of the historical details, was bored to tears and promptly switched majors.

7.  Where did you grow up?  I was born in Charlottesville, but grew up in Montana.

8.  What is the greatest invention of your lifetime and why? Obviously the Internet and cell phones have revolutionized our business and personal relationships. But probably the greatest invention for me was spell check. Ha, and I might add, I spelled “spell check” wrong when writing this and was promptly corrected by it.