IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2013 - 12

Wright's Butterfly Rising is a story of "love and the power of belief."

"Women are extraordinary creatures
on the planet," Wright says. "They do
so many wonderful things. So much of
Butterfly Rising is about women who
come from an oppressed situation in
their personal lives and set out on open
road and journey and end up in a much
better place on the earth for themselves.
I encourage women to reach out of their
comfort zones and explore whatever
their heart tells them to explore."

Empowering Women
Using the media to empower women is
part of Wright's mission. "I enjoy highlighting and spotlighting women. I love
women, talking with women, working
with women," she says. They are, she
says with a laugh, "far more interesting
than men in many, many ways."
It was when the executive producer
of Butterfly Rising learned of her interest in Africa that Wright found herself
with the chance to participate in the
Clinton Global Initiative. "I am African American and do feel a desire to
serve the continent. If I was able to
do that and spotlight them, help them
raise money so they can bring money
medicine to these people-our country,
my country-I was happy to do that,"
she says.

IEEE womEn In EngInEErIng magazInE

It was a life-changing experience.
"I was very inspired by the greatest minds
of the world gathering to fix the world's
problems in innovative, interesting, and
extraordinary ways," she says. She was
there as part of the Mkapa Foundation.
Founded by the former president of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa, the foundation
serves the rural health needs of Tanzanians and raises money to facilitate programs, especially HIV care and maternal
health. Wright's goal at the initiative was
to raise awareness for the needs of Tanzania and, since attending, she has made
it a point to "use the press to generate
awareness of problems in Tanzania and to
get the world to focus on that area."
"Africa is the richest continent in
all the land and yet in many ways it is
the poorest. But it is a resource-rich
place that can be self-sustaining. That
is a concept I am very interested in,"
Wright says.

Life Balance
No matter how busy her schedule,
Wright focuses on keeping her life in
balance. "A few basic things I do? I
make sure that I get a lot of rest and
make sure that I drink a lot of water. I
make time to be very quiet and to get
to that place-call it God or universe,

June 2013

there are a number of names for it-
but I do check into that place often
throughout the day and that is where
I find peace and inspiration, that's where
all my ideas come from, a place I love
and respect," she says. She encourages
other women to do the same. "I think in
particular for young women, if they start
now they can chart a great course for
the rest of their lives."
Wright also finds happiness and
energy in a community of women.
"One thing all young women should
know that is vitally important: there
is nothing that they cannot achieve in
the world if they really focus in on it
and visualize and work hard and make
it happen. I want them to know that
the sky is the limit. As you progress
from childhood to teen to young adult
to middle age, we tend to get very cynical. The enthusiasm people have for life
when they're younger tends to dissipate.
Encourage them not to let that happen. If they find a way to find creativity,
there's nothing they can't do. It's especially important to remember that when
you feel defeated and times get tough."
Recently, Wright attended a mentoring workshop that had been put
together by her hairstylist. "We get
together in her salon from eight in the
morning to five at night with lots of
different speakers talking about different topics-health, creativity, business,
dreams, all aspects in the education of a
woman's life. Hopefully I imparted some
knowledge, gave women a safe place to
ask questions and raise concerns about
things going on in their life."

Creative Arts and Science
Wright sees a strong bond between the
sciences and the arts. "There's often
all sorts of people who like to divorce
the creative as kind of abstract and science, which seems to be the opposite,
but many of the science minds that I
know-the really high-level science
minds-are terribly creative. Look at
Einstein. I'm interested in how science
and creativity can be married. In some
ways they very well may be the same
(continued on page 31)

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2013