OL Reign Legend: Heather Fitzpatrick – President and CEO of Wellspring Family Services

The Legends Campaign, a partnership between OL Reign and Starbucks, honors women for their extraordinary contributions to our community in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Prior to the April 17 match against Angel City FC, OL Reign recognized Heather Fitzpatrick, the President & CEO of Wellspring Family Services, a nonprofit that prevents and resolves family homelessness in the greater Seattle area.

Fitzpatrick, a Seattle native who received her MBA from the University of Washington, is an active civic leader in our community. She has served on more than a dozen boards of directors, including current service to Northwest Center and Archbright, and previous service to Leadership Tomorrow, Girl Scouts of Western Washington, the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Seattle Rotary #4, CityClub and the Washington Society of CPAs. She was recognized with the “Gold Award Legacy” and “Outstanding Leader” awards by the Girl Scouts of Western Washington and with the prestigious “40 Under 40 Award”, by the Puget Sound Business Journal.

She is passionate about helping families and employees find help quickly, preventing homelessness whenever possible, and permanently breaking the cycle of family-homelessness in our community, which is made clear by the work she is doing at Wellspring. For Fitzpatrick, a passion for community has been a driving force throughout her life.

“I got where I am today by following my passion, saying yes to unexpected opportunities and volunteering in our community. I guess you could say I got here by being bold! As a girl, I was active in Girl Scouts here in the Pacific Northwest. Girl Scouting is where I learned about leadership and its connection to making the world a better place. It was also my first board service opportunity: I served as a girl member of the Council’s board directors. Volunteering through Girl Scouts introduced me to the value of service in developing leadership skills and connections,” said Fitzpatrick.

Community isn’t the only thing that Fitzpatrick is passionate about, though.

“Throughout my career, I’ve pursued my passion – from majoring in French (and putting up with everyone who asked what in the world I would do with a degree in a foreign language), to starting my own business, to learning to fly, to authoring a book on improving returns on marketing investments. Pursuing my passions ensured that my work always had an element of pleasure. That makes hard work so much more rewarding,” she said.

Fitzpatrick also commented on the simple power of saying yes, even to the most unexpected opportunities.

“I’ve said yes to unexpected opportunities. That’s what led me to living in France as a Fulbright Fellow, getting my CPA and CGMA while working at Deloitte, and serving as CEO of Wellspring Family Services!”

As a woman who has found success in a variety of areas, Fitzpatrick took some time to offer advice to young women pursing a dream in a field they are traditionally underrepresented in. Her advice consists of three main points: – Be bold, be thoughtful and be an advocate for others.

“Be bold,” said Fitzpatrick, playing off of OL Reign’s slogan. “For most of my career, I was one of the only women, or the youngest person, or the only person with my background in the room. Sometimes that feels intimidating, but it makes your perspective and input even more valuable. It can be hard to speak up, but it is important that you do, even if those in the room choose not to listen.”

To convey the importance of speaking up, even when it’s difficult, Fitzpatrick shared a personal experience she had when serving on a board of directors.

“A few years ago, I ran into a woman with whom I’d served on a board of directors. I was often the dissenting voice on the board, and she told me that she thought there would never be a topic on which we would agree. Then, after a few years, she watched the concerns I’d expressed become reality and realized that I had been right. I had earned her respect as a result.”

On to her second piece of the advice, Fitzpatrick recommends being thoughtful when communicating with others.

“One of the best pieces of advice I got early in my career when I was speaking up loudly when I disagreed, was to pick my battles. At the time, I thought I was being silenced and I didn’t appreciate the feedback. Now I’ve realized that speaking strategically and thoughtfully gets you further than speaking frequently and loudly.”

In her final piece of advice, Fitzpatrick encourages young women to show kindness to all of those they cross paths with throughout their journey of working towards their goals.

“Be an advocate for others. Throughout my career, I have benefited from the kindness of others: people who took an interest in me and spoke up for me. I would not be where I am today without the kindness of people I barely knew,” said Fitzpatrick.

She continued, “As you work to break a glass ceiling, reach out a hand to the person who is following you. Be broad in your advocacy. That person may not look like you, have benefited from the same privileges, or have the same world perspective, but they will benefit from your advocacy and support. Serving and advocating for others is one of the greatest gifts of leadership, and one of the surest signs you have succeeded.”

Fitzpatrick is now the CEO and President of Wellspring Family Services. Wellspring’s commitment to prevention of homelessness demands innovative thinking and a unique combination of services. There are two ways fans can help support Wellspring Family Services. The first is to fully understand the issues surrounding homeless in our communities.

“It is important to understand that family homelessness is generally a poverty issue,” shared Fitzpatrick. “More than half of parents experiencing homelessness are employed, and one of the important ways we prevent and end homelessness is to ensure they remain employed. If you influence decisions about employee benefits in your workplace, you can help by encouraging your employer to choose Wellspring’s Employee Assistance Program as their EAP provider. Not only do we deliver high quality services to all employees, whether or not they are experiencing homelessness, we invest every extra dollar this program generates into helping families who don’t have access to our EAP benefits and are experiencing homelessness.”

The second way fans can support Wellspring’s mission is to make a donation to the organization.

“Wellspring receives funding from governmental entities to help prevent eviction, find stable housing, deliver mental health services, secure early learning services for children, and provide clothing, hygiene and other supplies to families. However, those contracts only cover about 75% of the cost. We rely on donors to help us cover the rest of our services. We encourage every OL Reign fan to participate in our challenge to raise $130,000 in support of our 130-year history of serving families experiencing homelessness! If every OL Reign fan were to donate $25 today, we could easily meet that goal,” said Fitzpatrick.

You can donate through the OL Reign fan page here: https://l.ead.me/olreign, or use the QR code below.

To conclude, Fitzpatrick shared that she is honored to be included alongside the impressive group of women that OL Reign has honored as Legends but would like to commend those she works with as well.

 “Leadership is a team sport, just like soccer. No individual player succeeds without a strong team working with her, hand in hand. I would not be accepting this honor without the dedication of my talented Wellspring leadership team and the compassionate and committed staff who serve our clients. I am accepting this honor on behalf of all of us at Wellspring Family Services.”

To learn more about Wellspring Family Services, visit their website here. To make a donation, click here.