[263] TBR Honors MTSU Alumna Wright with Award for Excellence in Philanthropy

Release date: Jan. 12, 2011

News and Public Affairs contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or jweiler@mtsu.edu
MTSU Development and University Relations contact: Joe Bales, 615-898-5014 or jbales@mtsu.edu


TBR Honors MTSU Alumna Wright with Award for Excellence in Philanthropy

(MURFREESBORO) — MTSU alumnus and Nashville businesswoman Pamela J. Wright recently was recognized by the Tennessee Board of Regents with its Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Philanthropy.
The award, presented by TBR Chancellor John Morgan, recognizes Wright, who made a $1.25 million commitment in 2007 to establish an endowed chair in entrepreneurship, for her outstanding support of MTSU.
Morgan said the award, established in 2004, recognizes “those exceptional philanthropic leaders who truly make a difference” at a TBR institution.
MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee, who nominated Wright for the honor, said Wright’s “desire to positively impact future generations of MTSU students” led her to establish the endowed chair.
To date, the university has received four of five annual payments to fully endow the chair.
“The Wright Travel Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship will allow MTSU to attract a renowned teacher, researcher and publisher in entrepreneurship, building upon an already strong academic program,” McPhee said.
Endowed chairs typically represent the very best in a given field. “It has been said that scholarships serve individual students, while a professorship in a particular discipline can influence generations of students,” McPhee said.
McPhee said Wright’s “personal journey has been shaped largely by her own entrepreneurial instincts.”
Wright is founder, CEO and owner of Nashville-based Wright Travel, which in 1989 was named to the Inc. 500 list of 500 fastest-growing, privately held American companies.
A Lebanon, Tenn., native, Wright earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from MTSU in 1973.
Her career began as a social worker for the Tennessee Department of Corrections. In 1981, she established Wright Travel, which has grown to 18 full-service branch locations in nine states and $128 million in annual sales.
Wright also has served MTSU as a member of the MTSU Foundation Board; the President’s Advisory Council; and the Jennings A. Jones College of Business Advisory Board.
Her civic involvement also includes serving on the board of directors for Junior Achievement of Nashville and the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau and as a member of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce Partnership 2020 Leadership Council.

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Photo caption


Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor John Morgan, left, presents alumna Pamela J. Wright with the 2010 Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Philanthropy during fall commencement ceremonies in Murphy Center. MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee, right, nominated her for the award.

Photo by J. Intintoli/MTSU Photographic Services



Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree — the only one in Tennessee — as a model program. MTSU recently unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.

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