2020 Maura Award Recipients
Dana Blankenship is the dynamic CEO and founder of Blankenship Change Consulting, LLC, a female-centric, 75-person strong boutique consulting firm that helps some of the world’s most well-known brands manage organizational change. She launched the firm after serving as a leader in the change management practice at Accenture for nearly 15 years, where she was often the lone female partner in a field crowded with men. After her oldest child was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, Blankenship desired a different work life balance. She ventured out on her own and began creating a new consulting model that fundamentally shifted the power balance in favor of women who wanted the benefits of consulting but not the traditional drawbacks. She has created a firm where the culture feels more like family than corporate and the women support, coach and develop each other in work and outside of work. Blankenship was able to entice many former big firm professional women back into consulting with a new value proposition – flexibility in schedule, minimal travel as well as very exciting work. Blankenship’s clients, who all have large bases of operation in Dallas, find this model of superior service at favorable prices so valuable that the firm maintains a waiting list for new clients.
A feminist and defender of human rights, Dana leads with her heart, whether it’s rocking babies while leading an annual service trip to Guatemalan orphanages with Orphan Outreach or supporting a family who worked for her to make sure the high school son realized his dream of being the first in his family to attend college. She received her B.A. and M.A. from Baylor University. Her family includes her husband and two daughters who are in college and who both have interned with her firm.
