Tiffany Hollin Wright, f. Regional Outreach Specialist, Richmond Fed
Tiffany Hollin Wright has lived many different lives. As a child, she learned to manage constant transitions between metropolitan and rural areas, with stints living all over Atlanta and Griffin, Georgia; Homestead, Florida; Yuma, Arizona; and other locations across the United States. During those formative years, Tiffany experienced the life of both low- and middle-income families firsthand. “I always straddled both worlds.” At one point she had a daily commute requiring her to walk more than a mile and take a city bus to attend a higher-performing school in a more affluent area. That effort proved worthwhile when she uncovered her love of math and science. Tiffany competed in high school district competitions and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry.
“I have to bridge the two worlds. What I’ve learned from both I try to share and exchange.”
Building bridges with data and personal stories
Though Tiffany found a way to thrive, she admits those early life experiences “left marks and remembrances, and I wanted to address those if I ever had the power to do it.” That drove Tiffany’s decision to study public health and community and social development in graduate school. She’s made it her life’s work to knock down the obstacles holding others back by using data and personal stories to create shared understanding between those who need opportunities and those with the power to provide them. “I have to bridge the two worlds. What I’ve learned from both I try to share and exchange.”
Her role at the Fed has taken her to diverse rural communities, where she’s come to understand how a town’s past can sometimes contribute to health, wealth, and racial inequities that local leaders are now trying to remedy. Tiffany and her Richmond Fed colleagues have engaged in candid conversations with rural leaders about these inequities. She shares, “We’ve laughed together, and sometimes we’ve even cried together.” These conversations often lead to the community identifying promising paths to achieving greater equity—providing the kind of bridges Tiffany has been committed to building all her adult life.
Editor’s note: Tiffany Hollin-Wright left her position with the Richmond Fed in July 2022.
