Beyond the Boardroom: Hendrick House's Ann Swanson
Jan. 8—After starting her culinary career working in kitchens at high-end restaurants — Garibaldi's in Columbia, S.C., McCrady's in Charleston, S.C., Bacaro in downtown Champaign — ANN SWANSON's office these days is 10 acres of fertile farmland on North Rising Road, home to Jude and FreeBee, her two "very large" rescue pigs.
One part chef, one part educator, one part innovator, the Monticello High and University of South Carolina grad returned to the area in 2011 and launched a farm program at Hendrick House two years later.
The farm director's role has expanded by the year and entailed a little bit of everything — managing the 10-acre teaching farm and dormitory rooftop garden, partnering with the CU Schools Foundation and other organizations on youth programs, educating food service workers on locally sourced food, helping feed those in low-income communities, marketing, grant writing, putting on farm-to-table dinners, filming cooking videos, even authoring an illustrated book on how to handle, store and prepare fresh veggies.
Her foodie roots trace back to the Sage City Café in her hometown, where Swanson worked while still in high school, and she's stayed on that track ever since.
Reid Hermann's wife and Norman the dog's mom took time out to answer questions from in the 162nd installment of our weekly speed read spotlighting leaders of organizations big and small.
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My one unbreakable rule of the workplace is ... attitude is everything.
My single favorite moment of all-time in this job was ... the first time children interacted with my rescue pigs — and every time since.
My philosophy on meetings is ... keep them short and direct.
I can't live without my ... unsweet ice tea, my friends, my family and Norman — my shorty Jack Russell.
The hardest thing about being a leader is ... the feeling that you aren't doing enough.
The three adjectives I hope my staff would use to describe me are ... driven, loyal and fair.
On my office walls, you'll find ... a calendar, white board and a lot of Post-its.
My professional role models are ... Kelly Hill, executive director of the Champaign Urbana Schools Foundation; Rebecca McBride, founder and president of Four Osprey, and Tracy Dace, founder of DREAAM.
They are motivated by the needs of others.
I'm frugal in that ... our budget requires us to recycle, reuse and repurpose. It forces us to be creative.
If I could trade places for a week with any other business person in town, I wouldn't mind switching with ... Jordan or Paris Baldarotta — so I could eat at Baldarotta's all week for free.
I wind down after work by ... meeting friends at the Brass Rail for Jeopardy on Fridays.
I like anything that has to do with water in the summer — swimming, kayaking, tubing.
The last luxury in which I indulged was ... my husband and I going on our honeymoon to Puerto Rico in November.
The most beneficial college experience I had was ... working in kitchens. It taught me work ethic, punctuality, time management, humility, responsibility, resiliency and made me tough.
That has been more valuable in my life than any college class.
I'm up and at 'em every day by ... 6 a.m. during farm season, 7:30 in the offseason.
My exercise routine consists of ... farming and walking. My job is pretty labor-intensive.
The worst job I ever had was ... at Sprinkles Turkey Farm. We vaccinated the turkeys. I haven't eaten turkey in 27 years.
Gross, gross, gross.
The impact of the pandemic has been ... mostly negative. The hospitality industry was really hit hard.
I would say one positive is that people seem to care a little more where their food comes from.
