Getting to Know You: Chris Metz

Chris Metz is no stranger to helping those in need. His career has been built on it.

“I spent most of my career working with the homeless; I did that for almost 12 years,” he says. “After that, I came to Evansville to work for ECHO Housing as the Executive Director for the last five years.”

His dedication to serving those in need also culminated in his appointment as the administrator of the Evansville Vanderburgh County Commission on Homelessness,  by Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke at the beginning of 2023. It’s a role that’s very important to him and one he takes as much pride in as his position as a counselor in Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at USI.

Metz’s leadership and dedication to helping others were rewarded in the spring with two honors; the 2023 Lt. Colonel Reginald Gibson Award from Leadership Everyone and the 2023 Barbara Ferguson Social Worker of the Year Award from Aurora, Inc. Though he knew he was nominated for the Leadership Everyone award, he was not aware of his nomination for the Aurora award—winning both came as a complete surprise.

Being recognized by Leadership Everyone and Aurora was special for Metz as it recognized the massive amount of work his team at ECHO Housing accomplished when he served as Executive Director, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. When the quarantine was put in place in March 2020, there were two big problems relative to homelessness that quickly became apparent to Metz and his staff; when someone is homeless and contracts COVID-19, where do they go to recover, and how do you keep them and the public safe from transmitting the virus? Metz’s answer to both questions was to quickly develop an isolation center, giving homeless individuals a place to recover and keep them safe during the pandemic.

“We had to do it in days; it was a tough time,” he says. “Myself and my team, we were walking to the facility every day in March and April 2020 to help those people at a time when everyone thought COVID was spread through the air. It was scary stuff at the time.”

But looking back, Metz adds, it was a task that had to be done, and he is proud of the work he and his team did for the homeless in Evansville.

“Those in health care and social work all over the world, we just kept doing the next thing that needed to be done,” he says. “I always say it’s amazing the lessons we learned from COVID, the way we all pulled in the same direction and everybody looking out for everybody else in need.”

Though the leadership role with ECHO allowed Metz to continue with his dedication to helping those in need, having an opportunity to come back to his alma mater, USI, was one he couldn’t pass up.

“I was looking for a pivot, I was looking for something new in my career,” says Metz, who earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work here. “I’ve worked as an adjunct instructor at USI since 2016, and based off that, I knew I loved working with college kids. Knowing that and coming to work with Dr. Robin Sanabria (Director of CAPS) and Aaron Pryor (Assistant Director of CAPS), two of my best friends, were just positive reasons to come back to USI.”

Born and raised in Posey County, Indiana, Metz has always strived to help those who need a hand. By coming back to USI, he still fulfills that goal by being there for USI students who may be struggling during their higher education journey.

What is your role here at USI?

I’m a counselor in the CAPS office. So, I see students every day and provide individual and group mental health counseling to our USI students.

What do you enjoy most about social work?

It’s so cool to have a job where you get to go to work every day and help people enjoy their lives. I want people to enjoy their lives; I want people to enjoy and appreciate every day as much as possible. And just to get paid to help people do that is great.

You have multiple typewriters in your office — is there a story behind your collection?

It’s a really random story. I’ve always liked old things; I like antiques. And I bought one typewriter at a flea market many years ago and put it in my office at the time. Just as a single decoration item because I thought it looked cool.

And what I didn’t know at the time was, these typewriters are the things a lot of people have in their attics and basements. So, when you have one, eventually someone sees it and says, “Oh you like typewriters? I’ve got one you can have.” Then suddenly you have two typewriters. Then someone else sees them and now you have three typewriters.

To be completely honest, I’ve only bought one typewriter. Once I put that in my office, I never bought another one. I have two more at my house that I just don’t have table space for here in my office. And then it just spirals—someone got me a business card holder that’s a typewriter and someone else bought me a scent diffuser that’s a typewriter. 

They are just really cool to look at.

Tell me more about the band you are a member of.

Our band is Patriotic Soul, and I play lead guitar. I’ve played with them for seven years ( Sanabria also plays in the band). We fancy ourselves as the community’s only nonprofit band. And what I mean by that is we’re the only band that I’m aware of in the Evansville community who will perform at non-profit events or community events for free.

I know from experience it can be hard as a nonprofit—it can be difficult to get what you need for an event on a limited budget. So that’s why we do this. And if we play at a private establishment that pays us to be there, then we will donate our earnings to nonprofits.

In all the years we’ve been together, we’ve never collected a dollar for payment personally. We get to go out and do a hobby that we all enjoy and make a difference in the community while doing it. I think that’s what is so special about the band; it’s obviously something we all like to do and it helps others.

We like to play popular songs from the 60s, 70s, 80s; pop hits that everyone knows.

Other than playing in the band, what other hobbies do you have?

The band takes up a lot of my time.

But I have three dogs that are all rescues, all boys I call my sons, and they take up a lot of my time. I also live on my family’s farm in Posey County with my wife, Jenna. We moved there a few years ago; it’s been in my family for many generations, about 150 years, and there’s a lot of upkeep of that which is a hobby. We have two daughters, 22-year-old Olivia and 12-year-old Addy. Olivia just started the MBA program here at USI, so she is now a Screagle.

What has surprised you since coming back to USI?

I suppose what surprised me when I arrived here was the students came here (to CAPS) with some of the exact same problems that I heard from the homeless clients I helped in my former jobs. And I didn’t expect that. It shows how important CAPS services are here and for our students.

For USI to provide up to 12 sessions a year for students to visit CAPS, it’s amazing. I don’t know of any other public universities around the state that forward thinking in terms of mental health. I love what we do here.

For more information about USI's CAPS services, visit usi.edu/counseling-and-psychological-services.