Nancy Womack graduated from Mercer University in 1986 with a major in communications and minors in English and French. She lives in Austell and is director of account and sales representative development at Caraustar Recycling Materials Sourcing.
Here are five things to know about Womack:
1. Her career started with the Cherry Blossom Festival.
Womack got an internship at the Cherry Blossom Festival her senior year of college. After graduation, she was the program manager for Keep Macon-Bibb Beautiful for a year.
She served in a similar role for Fulton County for five years and then in the city of Roswell for six years. In the latter position, she became familiar with the Caraustar company since Roswell sold recycled paper to it. She took a job at Caraustar at 32 years old, and 20 years later, she’s still with the company. Her work includes hiring, training and coaching sales people across the country.
2. She loves motivating people and being a leader.
While Womack cares about the environment and recycling, working with people has been the driving force in her career. She has been perfecting those interpersonal skills since she was student body president in seventh grade. She ran a volunteer group in high school to help children with their reading skills, and in college, she did more tutoring and became a pledge trainer for her sorority, Chi Omega.
“This has just been a consistent behavior for me,” she said. “Going into communications at Mercer enforced my ability to communicate to people and to make sure people understand things. I just want to build people up to be successful.”
3. Mercer and Macon established her career path.
Womack is a season ticket holder for Mercer football games and keeps a Mercer sticker on her car. She never would have had the opportunity to intern with the Cherry Blossom Festival if she hadn’t been at Mercer, and working for one of Keep America Beautiful’s first local affiliates was a big step in her career.
“Mercer absolutely got me to where I am,” she said. “It was a continual development. Their communications department was phenomenal. Once I got under my communications classes, there were so many opportunities, and it really opened my eyes to how communities see things in a different light.”
4. She’s already figured out her retirement plans.
Womack created an extensive manual and training process for Caraustar, and she’s working to ensure the workplace environment will be sustainable after she retires one day.
“My goal is to make this company attractive to people because they know they’re going to get good training and support and coaching,” she said. “I’m very proud of the culture I’ve built with the sales team as well as the tools I’ve created.”
When she does retire, she wants to visit colleges and universities and use an assessment system to help students figure out their futures.
5. Her first job was with Bridals by Lori.
Fans of TLC reality show “Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta” might remember Lori Allen, owner of Bridals by Lori, where the show was filmed. Womack’s first job was in high school at Allen’s store in Sandy Springs.
