Entrepreneur Tracy “Lolita” Burks Healy ‘87 is living proof that with a Mary Baldwin education a graduate can do almost anything. The Class of 2016, friends, and families will have the opportunity to learn from the painted-glassware mogul’s experiences at Mary Baldwin 174th Commencement on May 22.
This isn’t Healy’s first speaking engagement on campus. In 2010 she gave the Founders Day speech, telling students, “I never pictured myself, Tracy Lolita Burks, Class of 1987, standing here talking to the senior class at my alma mater. Yet, here I stand because my dreams are coming true. I am standing here to tell you today that your dreams can come true, too, if you seize your passion, rule it, and live it.” Healy is now a member of the college’s Board of Trustees and works with college administrators on marketing.
Healy is most famously known for her brand, Lolita, which she started in 2001 at her kitchen table. Using her love of art and design and her aptitude for creative marketing (which was inspired by many wonderful classes at Mary Baldwin), she created a brand that now, after 15 years in business, resonates across the world. She has more than 50 trademarks in various countries and more than 2,000 copyrights.
Also a mentor for SEED, a program for young fashion designers as part of StyleWeek NE, Healy is active in the Women’s Leadership Exchange and Leading Women, and various charities such as Susan J. Komen and the Wounded Warrior Project. She is a published author of a book, Martini Moments and is now writing her second book targeting female entrepreneurs. To learn more about Healy and her story, please check out her website at www.designsbylolita.com.
The 174th Commencement ceremony at Mary Baldwin University will begin at 10 a.m. at Barbara Kares Page Terrace on the main campus in Staunton. For more information about the ceremony and for the schedule of the weekend, visit go.marybaldwin.edu/commencement.