Woolsey?s Engaging Spirit Constant in Evolving Career

 Love brought Blake Woolsey to Northwest Arkansas, blood and money kept her here, and now she can’t imagine leaving an area in which she’s become a business and community fixture.

“This is where we belong,” Woolsey said of a family that includes her husband, Wayne, and three sons under the age of 12.

Blake Woolsey was six months into her job as senior development officer at the University of Arkansas’ College of Business Administration when she was honored as part of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s inaugural Forty Under 40 class. That was 1997.

Before that, Woolsey was assistant director of donor recruitment for the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks. That’s what led to then-dean of the business school Doyle Williams’ frequent introduction.

“We figured if she could get blood out of people, she could get money,” Woolsey remembered Williams saying.

Woolsey spent a handful of years at the UA before cutting back her hours while starting a family. Perhaps her greatest achievement while at the UA was participating in and receiving a gift of $50 million from The Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation Inc. in 1998. It was the largest gift, at that time, ever made to an American business school.

By that time, Woolsey also had become an active member of the Springdale Rotary Club and the Springdale Chamber of Commerce. She also was president-elect of the Junior League of Northwest Arkansas.

It was a heady time for someone who jokes she was “dragged across the border” by her new husband after growing up in Texas, where the two met before returning to his home state. Northwest Arkansas “provided more opportunities than I ever would have been given in a large metropolitan area,” Woolsey said.

That includes a friendship and eventual working relationship with Elise Mitchell. The two co-owned Executive Communication Consultants LLC while Woolsey maintained part-time duties at the UA.

ECC became part of Mitchell Communications Group in 2008. Woolsey, 41, now serves as vice president of organizational and leadership development. As such, she leads a five-person team that provides corporate training, facilitation and executive and individual coaching to a wide variety of clients.

Woolsey said she “adores” the day-to-day differences of her job, but her most-used piece of advice to her staffers is constant.

“If you’re behind a desk,” she tells them, “you’re not doing your job. You need to be in front of a client.”

That jibes with the philosophy Woolsey espoused in 1997.

“Attitude is equally as important as ability,” she told the Business Journal. “It takes energy, enthusiasm, determination and hard work.”

Woolsey has shown plenty of each throughout her career. In addition to multiple coaching certifications, Woolsey became a Certified Master Facilitator through the International Institute for Facilitators in 2007. She was the first to do so in the state of Arkansas.

More than honors or certifications, Woolsey said less tangible things have provided her with the most important lessons of her professional life. She cites Williams, UA chancellor G. David Gearhart and Clay and Sandy Edwards as influences in understanding and learning the value of strategy in business, among other things.

Woolsey said she’s also been constantly reminded of the importance of sharing and possessing humility during her career. All of it has produced a consistency Woolsey believes is critical to professional success.

“The way I work has not changed,” she said. “Every day I arrive at work, I think, ‘What can I learn today?'”

Away from work, Woolsey remains active in the community. She attends St. Joseph church and participates in programs there, and remains a sustaining member of both the Junior League and the Fayetteville Junior Civic League.

Most of her remaining free time is spent with her family. After selling Outer Limits Provisions, a hunting and fishing outfitter, in 2000, Wayne Woolsey has received patents on a couple of hunting-related products. The two will celebrate their 19th wedding anniversary in November.

Then there are the kids.

“We’re always going to the baseball field, football field or basketball court,” Blake Woolsey said with a smile when asked how she spends free time.

“I do want more hours in my day,” she added with a laugh.