Gift from sisters Heather Gardner ’93 and Mary Gardner
Burrelle ’95 will encourage and support leadership development, networking,
community building among current female students and alumnae
CONWAY, Ark. (January 12, 2022) —
A new Women’s Leadership Endowment (WLE) has been established to provide
resources for bringing together female Hendrix College students and Hendrix
College alumnae to create a network that offers leadership development
programming, career guidance, mentoring, and internships.
The WLE will create a community of support by
connecting individuals through personal and professional networks to combat the
challenges women often encounter in their work-life trajectories. WLE will leverage the
Hendrix Offices of Career Services and Alumni and Constituent Engagement to
bring the women of Hendrix together to address such challenges.
“We are excited to help cultivate
a community of Hendrix women to support one another in their lives and
careers,” said Heather Gardner ’93, who works as a financial institutions
relationship manager with William Blair Investment Management and has more than
25 years of experience as an investment professional in the financial services
industry. “Many of us know the inherent value of staying connected with other
Hendrix alumnae, and the WLE will seek to leverage that connection for shared
success.”
Gardner and her sister, Mary
Gardner Burrelle ’95, established the WLE as a way to support leadership
development for all women of the Hendrix College community, now and in the
future.
“We want to support and encourage
the women of Hendrix to embrace leadership as a valuable part of their journey
in work and life,” said Gardner Burrelle, who works for McDonald’s Corporation
as the head of global legal operations and chief of staff. “We’re excited to
have flexibility built into the WLE so it can address women’s professional
needs years and decades from now.”
Hendrix will form a steering
committee for the WLE headed by a female Hendrix faculty champion; Dr. Leslie
Templeton ’91, professor of psychology and associate provost for faculty
development, has agreed to serve the inaugural three-year term. The committee
will include a representative from Career Services, one from Alumni and
Constituent Engagement, a Hendrix alumna engaged with the WLE, and a female
student leader in her junior year of study. The committee will promote alumnae
engagement and develop student programming.
The first use of WLE funding was
to underwrite a women-focused session within Career Term, the annual
career-focused workshop open to all students just before the spring semester of
their sophomore year. That inaugural event was held today: a panel discussion
on the nature of women’s leadership, moderated by Hendrix Director of Career
Services Leigh Lassiter-Counts ’01 and featuring Gardner and Gardner Burrelle
as panelists, along with Jennifer Martin Gadberry ’95, vice president of asset management
for the Heifer Foundation.
“The WLE will provide a wonderful opportunity for Hendrix’s
female students and alumnae to secure mentoring and career guidance,” said
Ginny McMurray, the College’s associate vice president for development. “We are
so grateful for the support provided through the WLE.”
About Hendrix College
A private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas,
Hendrix College consistently earns recognition as one of the country’s leading
liberal arts institutions and is featured in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You
Think About Colleges. Its academic quality and rigor, innovation, and value
have established Hendrix as a fixture in numerous college guides, lists, and
rankings. Founded in 1876, Hendrix has been affiliated with the United
Methodist Church since 1884. To learn more, visit www.hendrix.edu.