Jessica Hager ’08 is part of a long legacy of civic engagement in communities. From teachers to physicians to clergy, her family has always encouraged an atmosphere of community participation, so it came as no surprise that after attending Southwestern, Hager joined AmeriCorps as a VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America), went into macro social work, and now works for Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger-relief organization in the country. “I’ve always had a part of me that felt the necessity to be engaged in the complexities of life with folks,” she shares. It’s just who she is. Exploring her identity has never been far from mind, and so she shares her evolution and lives out her full self when engaging in the workplace. 

Where it all began 

A formative memory comes readily to mind from a class assignment with former SU Communication Studies professor Dr. Julia Johnson. Having to write about three aspects of identity, Hager took this assignment to heart, since she had recently begun dating her now-wife but had yet to tell anyone. She wrote about her identity as mixed race as white and South Asian一even though she presents to most as only white一her relation to religion, and ultimately, Hager wrote about her sexual orientation in this paper to Johnson. “I had a very personal reaction based on my own evolution and journey at that point in my life,” she recalls. “This is a [memory] I cherish the most because during such a challenging time, being asked to reflect on identity, Julia treated me with such care, openness and friendship,” Hager says. 

This quality in Southwestern professors is not an uncommon one. For Hager, “Southwestern started to ask questions that helped build my curiosity and critical thinking skills and question the status quo.” It’s a skillset that has been influential in her career, and Hager is thankful for being taught about the power of language and messaging when understanding and addressing structural inequalities, many of which are rooted in racism and white supremacy. At her job as Director of Healthcare Partnerships and Nutrition, Hager states she is able to “look at systemic inequality, structures, and how to address that in our society, in policies, and environmental change systems.” Hager credits Southwestern with planting those seeds of thinking in ways that question fundamental elements in our society.

Feeding America 

Hager, drawn to working with communities, knew that Feeding America had a national lens that addressed systemic issues and worked to undermine them, not just through charitable donations, but also through active programming. When she and her wife moved to Chicago, a field placement option at Feeding America for graduate students in social work brought Hager to their doors. “I saw Feeding America as a huge organization as far as its influence, brand, reach, [and] potential for it to do more,” Hager explains. “I joined that organization knowing it’s not perfect, but knowing [that] I had a vision to create, even as an intern.” 

Being this perpetrator of change as she moved up the ladder from intern to director, Hager relays, “there is a persistent challenge in the US that is going to continue unless we also address the underlying issues from a policy and programmatic perspective.” To accomplish this, Hager believes in putting people who have lived experience at the center of the organization’s work. That’s exactly what she brought to the table due to her participation in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) during graduate school, which helped impact her perspective on matters the organization takes on. “There’s a stronger justice lens that is emerging at Feeding America,” says Hager. “That’s what’s kept me there for so long, because they’ve held the value of continued growth and introspection.” 

Hager believes that folks with lived experience, training in social work, along with those with a public health background, have an important value to the future of Feeding America. In expanding the voices and experiences within Feeding America, Hager states that the organization is truly evolving and refining its focus on how they understand and address food insecurity. “We know that there are disproportionate impacts of food insecurity, due to economic and structural inequalities on communities of color, the LGBTQIA+ community, disabled individuals, single mothers, older individuals, and there are important nuances in how we engage and best serve each population,” she explains. With Feeding America’s willingness to listen, Hager sees where to use her own experiences to make some of those changes. 

Know your value

Using a confident sense of self encouraged by her workplace, Hager states, “I continued to strengthen my voice at Feeding America: how I have power and influence and where best to use it, how to use it, and to know that no matter my age, sexuality, identity, I have a perspective that is valid and at the same time I need to sit back and listen to learn from others.” In collaboration with fellow co-workers, Hager started Pride+Progress, a LGBTQIA+ employee resource group that connects those identities with the work she does. 

During Pride Month of 2021, Pride+Progress hosted webinars for the Feeding America network of 200 banks to spotlight “the realities of food insecurity in our community and ways in which local organizations are leading with co-collaboration and dignity when developing programs and interventions.” Understanding the disproportionate impact of food insecurity within the LGBTQIA+ community is new to many in the sector, and Hager believes, “my identity has not only helped me see the gaps in knowledge and understanding in the workplace, but also help bring together others so we can build awareness and action.” 

Unfortunately, this attitude isn’t always supported in the workplace. From experience, Hager knows that it’s easy to get discouraged about hiding parts of your identity. A couple of years after graduating Southwestern, Hager accepted a job at a foster care and adoption agency一later learning they could have fired her if they’d known she was in a relationship with her wife. Fortunately, she had access to other opportunities so she left and quickly found a job elsewhere. She says, “I had in me, and through the support of my spouse, a very strong understanding that I do not deserve to be working at an organization that wants me to keep part of myself a secret and also does not respect the lives of children who are LGBTQIA+, so I’m not going to work there.”

It’s important to recognize that while there is still much more work to be done when it comes to valuing all identities in the workplace, it’s even more valuable to know your worth and where you can influence change. “Your voice and identity are value-adds to any organization,” Hager advises. “If they don’t acknowledge that, they do not deserve to have you in their workplace and that’s their loss.” She believes it’s critical for students coming out of college to find confidence with an organization that respects and helps them. “We have a very limited life, and we are beautiful, wonderful people in our fullness,” Hager ends. “It’s important for organizations to increasingly honor that in their staff.”