Julia Kathryn Haney Strickland - Junior League of Little Rock

Julia Kathryn Haney StricklandCompleting her year as Junior League of Little Rock president, JuliaStrickland expects to find new challenges. She’ll pursue them with a sense ofhumor that often comes in handy.BY KIMBERLY DISHONGH SPECIAL TO THE DEMOCRAT-GAZETTESunday, May 29, 2011LITTLE ROCK — Julia Strickland kicked off heryear as president of the Junior League of LittleRock with a signature twist.The other 10 members of her board showed up for aJanuary 2010 retreat, fully expecting to sit downaround a table in the Junior League Building onScott Street and take part in a strategy powwow.But Strickland asked them all to get back in theircars.“I had them follow me and we went to the GainesHouse,” Strickland says.Gaines House is a nonprofit transitional livingresidence for homeless women, 18 or older, whohave been treated for a mental, physical oremotional disability. That day it was the site of ahands-on project, combining a bit of history withfurthering the goals and strategies set forth in thebook Strickland had chosen as inspiration for heryear in office - Forces for Good by LeslieCrutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant. The bookincludes a study of 12 high-impact nonprofits andlays out six practices those organizations have incommon.“The Gaines House was started by the JuniorLeague back in the ’60s, which is why I selectedthat venue,” she says. “We pulled up and got out ofthe car and I handed them bags of food and wewalked in and cooked dinner for the residents and played games with them.”Photo by Staton Breidenthal‘The more involved I became and the more people I met, the morepassionate I became about what the [Junior] League is doing.’Jeanne Joyner, who Strickland asked to serve as sustainer adviser this year, was among those whowent to the Gaines House that night.“I thought it was a wonderful example of Julia’s leadership style,” Joyner says. “Julia believes thateach member of the League needs to feel empowered to take the training they have learned in Leagueand apply it to all of the League members’ various service endeavors in the community, both duringtheir League years and beyond.”

The Gaines House event was so successful that Strickland and the board set out to create a similarexperience on a larger scale with the rest of the Junior League membership at the Arkansas School forthe Blind in May 2010.The school, like Gaines House, has ties to the Junior League. In the 1960s, League members learnedBraille and translated textbooks to Braille for students.One of the strategies is inspir-ing evangelists for a cause. Strickland’s plan was having Junior Leaguemembers see firsthand some of the people who benefit from the League’s work so they would beinspired to work harder to get others involved.“They walked into this not really having a game plan down because they didn’t know what they weregoing to do until they got there that night,” Strickland says. “They thought we were going to have aPowerPoint presentation. So it was a surprise to the Junior League members who were there, and theyhad to have flexibility and they had to do this project without a lot of planning in the beginning.”Tisha Gribble, the League’s president-elect, took part in the activities at Gaines House and theArkansas School for the Blind.“We got to sort of interact with those women in a way that probably wouldn’t happen otherwise,”Gribble says of their trip to Gaines House.Of the school work, she says, “It was kind of a new twist on our training. We’ve never done anythinglike it in a training capacity. Our projects are hands-on with all sorts of individuals, but in the beginningof the year we’ve never had an opportunity to do that as chairs and chair-elects. Our training is usuallymore of an orientation and this was more of a handson activity that allowed us to work with these cutekids. It pulled at your heartstrings.”Gribble has gotten to know Strickland over the last couple of years as they worked and traveledtogether.“It was sort of like baptism by fire. She was already president-elect, and I was president-elect-elect,”Gribble says. “She hadn’t taken office yet so she was trying to learn the ropes. That was a fun time. Ididn’t know her very well then - it’s kind of funny, you get thrown together and you’re sharing a roomand a bathroom. You get to know each other fast.” KENTUCKY BABYStrickland was born in Murray, Ky., but moved to Springdale when she was about a year old so herfather could attend law school at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.Her father, Roger Haney, Washington County treasurer, and her mother, Mary, a retired teacher, live inFayetteville. She and her younger brother, Steven, a police officer in that city, spent some time everysummer as children staying with theirgrandparents in Kentucky. Their grandfather was a retired teacherand counselor turned tobacco farmer and Strickland helped with tasks like topping and suckeringtobacco on those trips.“So, I know how to grow tobacco. That skill and knowledge has never come into play in anything inmy career,” she says with a smile.Strickland got her bachelor of science business administration degree in accounting from the UA in1991, and moved to Little Rock soon after to work for what was then the Peat Marwick accountingfirm. Since 2002, she has been business manager at Cross Gunter Witherspoon and Galchus.“It is amazing how Julia can balance the demands and long hours of family, civic and professionalwork,” says lawyer Rick Roderick, Strickland’s boss. “She is one of the most dedicated andconscientious individuals I have ever met. She sets high standards and is relentless in achieving thosestandards in anything she does. I’ve worked with a lot of very successful people in my life and she isright up there with the best of them. Julia is a success story, an amazing person.”She and her husband, Reese, met in college and married in 1995. They have three children - 11-yearoldKatie, 8-year-old Will and 6-yearold Erin.

Strickland’s parents weren’t involved in organized community service during her formative years, sherecalls, but she did see them helping others. Her mother still takes time out to prepare dishes forfunerals or sickfriends. After every Sunday night Mass, Strickland’s parents help prepare a meal for200 students at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church.“And my mom takes an elderly lady to an event that she goes to every week - she picks her up, shetakes her, she picks her up when it’s over and she takes her back home,” Strickland says. “It’s that kindof stuff that I saw growing up.”Strickland had volunteered with the American Cancer Society and United Cerebral Palsy of Arkansasbefore 2001 when a couple of her friends who were involved with Junior League suggested she join.“They thought it would be a good opportunity for us to do more things together,” she says. “I tell you,when I got involved with the League, I had no idea I would be president of the organization, or serveon its board or even chair a committee.”Junior League members are expected to serve seven active years.“I just honestly thought I would serve on a committee all seven years and be done,” she says. “Afterabout three years I got a call to serve on the board as the treasurerelect and it all started that way. Themore involved I became and the more people I met, the more passionate I became about what theLeague is doing. It was an easy step to make me want to be president.”Tammie Davis was working with the Finance Council when Strickland was treasurer-elect and thentreasurer.“It was then that I realized she has this great knack forcontinually looking for ways to improve uponprocesses and procedures,” Davis says. “She has used this same ability as president to lead theorganization in streamlining the focus areas of the League so that it will be even more effective inimproving the lives of women and children in the community.”During the two years between serving as treasurer and being named presidentelect, Strickland servedon the League’s nominating committee, which selects board members and chairmen. After that, shewas inaugural chairman of Families and Communities Together. That committee provides educationalprograms and mentoring for teen mothers and mothers-to-be.“I wanted the challenge of starting a community program like that,” she says. “I decided, you know,that was kind of fun. I might like to be president.”This year, Davis learned that Strickland’s aptitude for reaching goals can easily be transferred topersonal endeavors.“Julia is one of those rare individuals who has the ability to inspire others to reach higher and to worktowardlofty goals,” Davis says. “She even has the ability to make reaching those goals seem fun. Juliaand I just finished training for a 5K race together and all along the way she has been an encouragementas we have laughed our way to the finish line.” FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKINGStrickland embraces humor. She can’t help but laugh when she recalls the time she forgot to includethe safe onthe list of items for movers to transfer from the League building to Verizon Arena for anevent.“I was over there and I was thinking, ‘OK, we’re doing really well, we’ve got this all set up. Theprevious treasurers before me, my predecessors, they’re going to be so proud I got all this done,’” shesays. “Then someone said, ‘Wells Fargo is going to be here in a minute to deliver the money, where dothey put it?’ Then I realized the safe wasn’t there.”Rather than panic, Strickland recruited some members to go back to the building with her. Togetherthey managed, with the help of a dolly, to lug the safe into a waiting SUV.“We were going across the Broadway Bridge real slow with this safe sticking out the back of theSuburban,” she says. “Two of us were lying across it - for what reason I don’t know because if it fell

out, we were going with it - and we were laughing so hard and just hoping we didn’t fall out of thistruck on the Broadway Bridge. We spent two hours moving that thing over there by ourselvesbecause Iforgot the safe. But it’s those kinds of things that you’re like, ‘OK, we’ve got to just figure this out.’”Being in the League, and especially serving as president, has been a demanding endeavor, but it’s onethat has led to reward as well as personal and professional improvement for Strickland.For instance, she has overcome her fear of public speaking. As treasurer, she convinced the treasurerelect,who didn’t share her trepidation, to do all the talking.“I remember when I toldsomebody I was going to be president of the Junior League, they laughed andsaid, ‘But you don’t like talking in front of people.’ I said, ‘I know - I don’t know what I’m going todo!’” she recalls. “I’ve attended educational sessions about speaking in front of people and I’ve learnedto manage that challenge and to work around it.”Strickland says she doesn’t know yet what she’ll do on Wednesday, when her presidency officiallyends.“To be honest, all my efforts have been on finishing strong,” she says. “I have noteven thought aboutJune 1. I couldn’t tell you what I’m going to do. My thoughts have not gone there yet.”But she’s sure she wants to use what she has learned in the League: “Going forward, I would like tostay involved in the community but I would like to do something with my kids. There are lots of thingsout there that I can do with them to create a bond there with us, that there’s something we’re workingtowards and have something that we’re all passionate about. I don’t know yet what that is.”SELFPORTRAIT Julia StricklandDATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH Aug. 2, 1969, Murray, Ky.MY FAMILY THINKS I’M Supportive and encouraging.IF I COULD CHANGE ONE THING An hour would be 75 minutes long.THE LAST MOVIE I SAW AND LIKED WAS The King’s Speech.I WANT TO BE REMEMBERED FOR Inspiring others to be leaders.I’M MOST COMFORTABLE When I’m challenged to solve a problem.TO MY FANTASY LEADERSHIP TRAINING SESSION I WOULD INVITE Walt Disney,Jeanne Joyner, Queen Noor of Jordan, Maria Shriver and my boss, Rick Roderick.IF I WERE STRANDED ON A DESERT ISLAND, THE THREE THINGS I WOULD HAVE TOHAVE WOULD BE My iPhone (although the battery would be a problem), my journal (to listeverything I need to do after being rescued) and a comfortable pillow.I WISH I COULD Visit all seven continents.MY FONDEST CHILDHOOD MEMORY IS Spending summers with my grandparents.ONE WORD TO SUM ME UP Determined.High Profile, Pages 35 on 05/29/2011