photograph by justin fox burks
When she was in her twenties, Pat Mitchell Worley was asked where her dream job would be. “The Soulsville Foundation,” she replied. “That was where I could …” and here she belts out a note with a fine vibrato and a big smile.
At the time, she imagined the dream job would be something in communications. “My work was in that and public relations and I saw myself continuing on that track.” Her mother’s family founded the Defender newspaper chain and her grandfather was the Tri-State Defender’s editor, so she was in it from a young age. “Media was one of the things that I wanted to do in life,” she says. “And I had this dream that by the time I finished my career, I knew that I wanted to host a TV show, be on the radio, do PR for bands. And I figured it would take me my whole career to do these things.”
But she was on a faster track than she expected, and by age 30, had done all those things. “And I wondered what I was going to do next,” she says. “My goal and my promise to myself was to find jobs where I believed in what I did and got to learn new things.”
She kept that promise. Mitchell Worley worked at ARTSmemphis, the International Blues Foundation, the Memphis Music Foundation, Memphis in May, and MPACT Memphis, broadening her experiences and expanding her network in several areas of the cultural community. She has been co-host since 1998 of the syndicated roots radio show Beale Street Caravan.
In her consulting work, she had Stax as a client and loved working with the organization. And just as she’d hoped, the dream job happened. She served as executive director of the Stax Music Academy from 2018 to 2022 and then was named CEO of the Soulsville Foundation.
The foundation is the parent organization for the Stax Museum, the Stax Music Academy, and the Soulsville Charter School. “Preserving the history is very important,” Mitchell Worley says. “It’s not just ‘Hey, we have a school,’ but the school is academic prep, the music academy is music education, and the museum educates by telling the story and making it relevant to today. We’re inspiring the next generation to carry on this Memphis sound.”
While the activities of the organization’s various components are well known locally, plenty of the work is less recognized. It’s well known that since the first graduating class in 2012, 100 percent of seniors at the Soulsville Charter School have been accepted to college or post-secondary educational institutions. “But what doesn’t get attention is that we help them find scholarships to pay for school,” Mitchell Worley says. “We’re helping them find the way to pay for that college experience. And that, to me, means so much more.”
“After years of involvement in music in Memphis, this space is the past, the present, and the future of Memphis music. It’s all right here on this corner and there are so many opportunities that are available to us.” — Pat Mitchell Worley
And it goes even further. “We stay with our students after graduation because it’s hard trying to adult when you’re just barely an adult. For a lot of our students, they’re still trying to adult and they don’t know where to turn or deal with something. For some, their parents don’t even know how to deal with it. So, we give them another voice, someone else that they can turn to that they can try to figure out a path.”
Mitchell Worley points out a newly commencing program that will benefit students. “We’ll be launching a certificate program for arts and entertainment production jobs,” she says. “We’ve been doing placements of our students and our alumni and getting them gigs. Many people call us when they’re looking for somebody to run this program, or a church needs a sound guy or someone has a TV ministry, or someone else needs a camera person. Now we’re taking that next step and certifying them and providing something that speaks to their knowledge.”
It’s all part of a growing and inclusive effort to make the most of the resource on McLemore Avenue. “After years of involvement in music in Memphis, this space is the past, the present, and the future of Memphis music. It’s all right here on this corner and there are so many opportunities that are available to us.”
Mitchell Worley is energized about heading the organization and, like a true leader, points at the group that keeps it going. “We have a team of people that are passionate about the work that they do, that are passionate about the place that we’re in,” she says. “And that makes my job 10 times easier because everybody who’s here wants to be here and they want to contribute to the Stax Records legacy.”
Now she is carrying out her dream job with a clear sense of what she’s contributing. “I see my work here as part of the tapestry of our city’s amazing story,” she says, “with all these characters and what they were able to accomplish. I get to put a stitch in it, and that is rewarding. But I’m probably most thankful for all those people who gave a loud, brash, heavy-metal loving smartass an opportunity. They ignored all that and saw some potential and gave me their time and their energy and their love.”
About CEO of the Year
For more than a decade, Memphis Magazine has celebrated a group of CEOs every year, recognizing visionaries and executives who go above and beyond to elevate their companies and their community. And every year, we gather these leaders at a sponsored awards breakfast to honor them in front of their peers and the community.
The challenge is in deciding which of them should receive the honor. Memphis is bold, creative, and forward-thinking, so those who are selected by magazine staff members do more than lead a successful organization. We like to see leaders that value innovation, who pay particular attention to the welfare and treatment of employees, and who give back to the community. It is these efforts that make a difference, and these results that provide a reason to celebrate.
The awards breakfast is April 16th from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Hardin Hall at Memphis Botanic Garden. Prices are $200 for a table of 10 or $30 per ticket. Tickets are at bit.ly/memceo
The 2024 CEO of the Year is sponsored by eBiz Solutions and ProTech Services Group.
