Jenny Jett Erwin has had a diverse career that has taken her from the classroom, to small business ownership, and then to public service in both the state and federal government. Her success in each of these ventures can be attributed to her compassion, curiosity, persistence and attention to detail. Through her leadership and advocacy, she has developed and implemented innovative programs and creative educational tools for women and girls.
For the past 30 years her work has focused on women’s education and employment issues. First she worked at the Arizona Department of Education as the Gender Equity Administration overseeing more than 30 statewide programs and then at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in San Francisco as the Region 9 Women’s Bureau Administrator. Her territory with DOL included Arizona, California, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam, plus for several years she also managed the Seattle office covering Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. During her public service career, she worked on a variety of women’s employment initiatives including nontraditional careers, equal pay, green jobs, work life benefits, financial literacy, and women veteran reintegration issues.
Throughout her professional life, she has been a strong communicator and has shared her knowledge and passion through her training, speaking and writing. While at the Department of Education, she created and published a quarterly Connections Newsletter and had numerous articles on gender equity published in state and national publications. She was also hired to develop an equity guidebook for the state of Mississippi and provided training to vocational teachers throughout the state. The publication, Expanding Options, A Gender Equity Resource Guide was then adapted by three other states and she likewise provided training to educators in those states too.
While working for the Department of Labor on the women veteran’s homeless issues, she was instrumental in the creation and the implementation of a land mark resource, Trauma Informed Care for Women Veterans Experiencing Homelessness: A Guide for Service Providers. Once completed, she helped train community groups and mental health professionals to implement this guide. Two other important outcomes were a result of this Trauma-Informed Care Resource: the unique challenges of women veterans were finally identified and organizations began working to adjust their environments to better address these challenges.
Jenny’s concern and passion for women veterans provided an unexpected opportunity for her post- retirement journey. She was asked to return to the Women’s Bureau National Office in Washington, DC to help take the women veteran’s initiative to another level. There she was part of a three person “Tiger Team”, which expanded and institutionalized employment services for women veterans by creating the first Women Veteran Employment Manager position within the Department of Labor.
Her involvement with the veteran’s community and learning about post military service issues led her in a totally unexpected direction…telling her parent’s WWII story. When she discovered more than 400 letters her father sent to her mother along with photos and other 1940’s memorabilia, she knew she had to share their story. It describes his service in the jungles of New Guinea and her mother’s role on the Home Front. Now her life work is twofold: she is creating the platform to share her parent’s story and is providing resources to help other families capture, preserve and share these important stories of The Greatest Generation.
