Article: Jessica Owen - Executive Director
Jessica Owen - Executive Director
A lifetime servant leader, Jessica has a nearly fifteen year history caring for veterans, addicted, homeless, and refugees. Beginning as a Certified Medical Assistant providing care to WWII and Vietnam vets in Memphis, TN (and at a number of facilities across the mid-south) she quickly found a soft spot for veterans in need. With the onset of the opioid epidemic reaching full tilt in the Memphis area around 2010, most of those in need struggled with some sort of opioid addiction, and this led to Jess discovering her calling in a roundabout way.
Since those early days, Jess has been a guest speaker at hundreds of recovery meetings and events, led groups at youth treatment centers, homeless shelters, veterans groups, detox centers, drug court programs and long term care facilities.
Her experiences with these groups - and her compassion for those in need - were put to full use after the fall of Kabul as her operational expertise managing communications, finding funding from scant resources, gaining people's trust, and having a servant's heart have all been mission-critical as she leads our team in case management for the Afghanistan Effort. Jess has served as the sole point of contact for hundreds of Afghans in need who have served American interests, as well as a staggering number of at-risk minority populations such as Hazara, Christians, women activists, and more.
Jess is a formerly homeless opioid addict herself, and having successfully walked the road out of hell, she's more than capable of showing that path to the willing. Her firsthand experiences with addiction, homelessness, and hopelessness are just as instrumental to the success of her efforts as her heart and her experiences outside of addiction, as she is uniquely able to meet these men and women where they are, as they are, take them by the hand, and lead them back to a life worth living.