{"id":4457,"date":"2013-03-15T08:36:37","date_gmt":"2013-03-15T08:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/magazines\/vanderbilt-business\/?p=4457"},"modified":"2016-01-11T15:10:33","modified_gmt":"2016-01-11T15:10:33","slug":"the-long-haul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/the-long-haul\/","title":{"rendered":"The Long Haul"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_3937\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3937\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3937\" title=\"longhaul-650\" src=\"https:\/\/magazine.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/legacy\/i\/longhaul-650.jpg\" alt=\"Jacqueline Parker, recently named Chief Strategy Officer at Covenant, has been with the company since it opened in 1986.\" width=\"650\" height=\"398\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3937\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jacqueline Parker, recently named Chief Strategy Officer at Covenant, has been with the company since it opened in 1986.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In 1986 Jacqueline Parker had to make one of the toughest decisions of her life: either complete her senior year in college and earn a bachelor\u2019s in nursing, or join her husband, David, in an ambitious startup in the trucking business. Parker chose the latter, setting the wheels in motion for a career at Covenant Transportation Group that has lasted more than 26 years. She hasn\u2019t looked back since.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the time I thought, \u2018You know what? My efforts are better spent with Covenant. That\u2019s where my future is,\u2019\u201d says Parker, who serves as the company\u2019s Chief Strategy Officer. \u201cWith a startup, there\u2019s so much work to be done. You need a lot of hands. So I signed up, and I just stayed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Covenant opened for business with just 25 tractors and 50 trailers. Since then, the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based company has grown considerably, acquiring other carriers along the way. Covenant now operates approximately 3,000 trucks, which transport a variety of goods across the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Parker attributes much of Covenant\u2019s success to her and her husband\u2019s strong faith. \u201cSome people call it chance; others call it luck. We call it God,\u201d she says. This philosophy is reflected in the name of the company, which she explains is about not only a spiritual commitment but also \u201can agreement that we have with our customers, employees, vendors and shareholders.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This sense of commitment is what spurred Parker to enroll in the Vanderbilt Executive MBA program in 2010. When Covenant encountered a rough stretch during the late 2000s, Parker remembers wishing that she could have done more to help the company. \u201cYou\u2019re disappointing stakeholders on all fronts, and you feel responsible,\u201d she says. \u201cI had a lot of institutional knowledge, but I knew I was lacking some valuable skills.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s when Parker made perhaps the second toughest decision of her life. \u201cGoing back to school was one of the hardest things I\u2019ve done,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I thought, \u2018It\u2019s going to be worth it in terms of time and money and effort.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd indeed it was.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1986 Jacqueline Parker had to make one of the toughest decisions of her life: either complete her senior year in college and earn a bachelor\u2019s in nursing, or join her husband, David, in an ambitious startup in the trucking business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,4],"tags":[47],"class_list":["post-4457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-departments","category-personal-assets","tag-fall2012"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/363"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4457"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8752,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4457\/revisions\/8752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}