Heather's Success | Goodwill Chattanooga

Recently, Goodwill held an annual award ceremony in conjunction with our first organization-wide One Goodwill event, a day dedicated entirely to investing in the people who make our mission possible.

For one day, we closed every Goodwill store, donation site, Opportunity Center, distribution center, and administrative office in the greater Chattanooga area to invest in our people.

On that day, Heather, a Goodwill Director of Retail Operations, was honored with the Leadership award. This award recognizes a leader within Goodwill who inspires, motivates, executes, and exemplifies excellent leadership through change, despite adversity.

Heather’s leadership can be felt not only in the results she delivers, but in the confidence, connection, and stability she brings. One nominator shared that when Heather joined Goodwill, they “immediately experienced a positive shift in leadership, communication, and support.”

Another nominator highlighted how Heather “always answers the phone with a smile,” no matter what she is facing. That small, simple detail says so much about who she is: a leader who remains steady, approachable, and committed.

“This is the most impactful award I could receive,” said Heather. “To know that I have that much support behind me is encouraging. I love working at Goodwill because I have the satisfaction of knowing that I get to make a difference in people’s lives.”

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Goodwill & the Chattanooga i-team

October 19, 2026

The Goodwill Opportunity Center is excited to be working alongside the Chattanooga i-team. What is an i-team, you ask? The City of Chattanooga’s Innovation Team (i-team) utilizes the Path to Public Innovation, a methodology that centers residents and their perspectives in the process to design new solutions. In alignment with the City of Chattanooga’s One Chattanooga Works strategic initiative, the i-team is tackling complex challenges through data and community engagement, and working with city leaders, residents, nonprofit organizations, and other stakeholders to test and implement new ideas focused on workforce development. As part of this initiative, the i-team hosted in-person discussions and ideation sessions at the Goodwill Opportunity Center. During these ideation sessions, Goodwill participants and community members generated ideas about how to grow professional networks, find and access information and opportunities, better understand what jobs are currently available, and what skills, knowledge, and experience are needed for key career pathways. I-team Director Liza Soydan and her team are currently prototyping new solutions to help people gain exposure to available jobs in the Chattanooga area.