Her Story
About Carla
Carla Blake serves as Senior Staff Assistant at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. In this role, she oversees operations in the chemical engineering department, handling finances, payroll, grants and contracts, research facility support, hiring, and assistance to graduate students. She began her higher education career in 2005 at the University of Alabama, working in the office pool across departments including athletics, social work, English, and art and art history before taking a full-time position as administrative secretary in art and art history in 2013. After a period running her own janitorial business focused on hoarder cleanouts, she returned to university work in 2022 at UAH. Without a formal college degree, Carla attributes her success to life experience, continuous learning, and her relationship with God. She values integrity and emotional intelligence in navigating diverse professional environments.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Carla
01What do you attribute your success to?
My relationship with God. Period in the sentence. He's he that's it for me. Live it, do it, learn it, be it.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Keep your mouth shut and your eyes open. I never stop learning, and Mom You don't know it all. Learn from everybody in the room. Even the youngest person in the room that knows absolutely nothing might teach you the most valuable lesson you've ever learned.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
You need to be able to be emotionally mature. Life is hard. Life is really hard. Don't Your job is your job. Keep things in perspective. And Don't believe don't believe it when everybody tells you how great you are, and also don't believe it when people tell you you're not so great. Keep it in the middle of the road. And get up every day and make your bed. And go to work. And believe in yourself, you know, that's just the bottom line. Yeah, just get up and show up in your own life, and enjoy each moment. Don't Don't project and don't look back too much, just live in the moment.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Trying to decide which opportunity to take, because they're just everywhere. There is so much going on. They're just the learning opportunities are insane now. You can get on online now and learn anything you want to learn. Period. You can be anything you want to be, and you don't none of us have to follow any any path that was laid out before. There are just so many new paths we can carve now, and make everything our own.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity. Don't be afraid to be vulnerable and know that you don't know everything, and when you make a mistake, be the first one to bring it to light, and say, you know, I didn't, I tried to do this, I did it wrong. Will you help me? Somebody You know, helped me to do it right.
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