Pat Alea has a “career with a sidebar.”
Now a management and leadership
consultant who has worked with some
top local women, Alea has a rich professional history, including high school English teacher, poet, lecturer and publisher, community organizer and marketing executive, to name a few.
Moved to empower women, Alea’s “sidebar”
includes “an equal measure of work in
civil rights, women’s rights and on community issues.”
“My husband calls me a ‘truth and justice’
person … one who believes often against the odds that everything can and will get better. I call myself a ‘pragmatic utopian.’ I want to know the best possible vision, know where we stand at the moment and I will then, usually in partnership with many talented others, find a way to get from here to there!” And every day, whether it was balancing her career with providing care for her out-of-state mother who recently passed away, coaching the likes of Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton and state Superintendent
Elizabeth Burmaster, consulting
with major organizations and corporations, or finding harmony in her backyard garden, Alea continues to get “from here to there.”

Moving with the movement
“My work with women,” says Alea, “is largely an accident of my age.”
Growing up in the 1960s, with Title IX,
legislation to address domestic violence and
sexual assault, and women ascending on the workforce in droves, Alea found her niche.
“As soon as a women’s movement began
to move, I was there!” Now, nearly 50 years later, women have a greater place in society, thanks to women like Alea. For those of the younger generations who’ve grown up with relative freedom of choice, economic power and the like, imagining how women’s roles have evolved is a tough exercise.
“My daughters still marvel at a world that
only a few decades ago now seems like Jurassic Park in relation to women’s roles,” says Alea.
And the work is not done.
While Alea she says she is “humbled” by
men proudly standing side-by-side with
women, championing equality of the female
gender, both men and women need to get on
board to affect lasting change. And women
need to realize this isn’t a perfect world for
them either.
“On a related note, I try to have patience
with women who don’t acknowledge the need to address issues of gender equity,” says Alea

“[Such as] women who feel that if they’ve
made it, [so] other women should be able to
do the same. Without the advocacy of those
who have succeeded, we lose heart. When
men disappoint us, we lose faith in them.
When women disappoint us, we lose hope. It
may seem unfair, but if we don’t speak for
ourselves and enlist the men who want us to
succeed, if we don’t take a strong initiative,
we will never have power. It can’t be given; it
must be taken authentically.”

Still working for change
Can anyone be a leader? Can anyone affect
change?
“I see the capacity for leadership everywhere.
What is leadership but the undiluted
will to make something important happen and to enlist others to help?”
But intention and will are easily diluted, especially for women, by the many roles played. There is usually something more or equally as pressing to tend to, be it a sick child, financial responsibilities or time constraints.
“Most women today face both internal and
external barriers in pursuing their dreams. It’s
important to know which is which,” says Alea.
Part of Alea’s job as a consultant is helping
clients recognize and challenge these barriers.
From it, she’s developed a strong list of
leaders who are not only clients, but friends,
including Lawton, Burmaster, UW Police
Chief Sue Riseling, Tammy Thayer, president
of the UW School of Business Center for Advanced Studies in Business, and other outstanding women.
“I have been fortunate to work with many
of the women who are not only leading our
best institutions, but who are addressing institutional change to include women and others who have been sidelined in our culture. I am always eager to understand the unique vision such leaders have crafted. … I have wonderful ongoing relationships with these and dozens of other women with whom I’ve