Name: Penny Whoolery 

Position: Manager: Certification & Membership

When did you join AACE? January 12, 2010

Why do you do what you do, professionally?
I enjoy challenging work and solving problems. From day one, AACE has provided both.

What have you learned working at AACE?
Two things are prominent in my mind:

• My acquired skills and abilities have helped to strengthen and improve the programs I oversee; yet the challenges of the programs I oversee have strengthened and improved my skills and abilities. It is a lovely cycle of give and take.
• Working in an environment that fosters work-life balance is critical to my success and career fulfillment. Getting to work with a talented team is icing on the cake.

Tell us about your interests, family, and/or a fun fact!
Over the past 16 months, my interests have been narrowly focused to wedding planning, since both of my daughters decided to get married 10 months apart. So, I will share the most recent interesting thing to happen to me that ended up being a surprising, but great interest of mine.

In 2019, I overcame my life-long fear of animals – well, not exactly animals, just a rescued Pitbull, named Thor. My youngest daughter rescued him in the fall of 2018 when she moved into her first home, which was conveniently located just outside of my backyard. Over time, with a lot of encouragement from my husband and family, and the perpetual friendly tail-wagging from Thor, I had my first experience petting Thor and feeding him a treat in June 2019. By the end of 2019, I was dog sitting and keeping Thor overnight (on occasions, by myself).

For most people this is not a big deal. In my world, it is a miracle – in fact, when telling this story my family describes it as a miracle (they should know, they have witnessed my fear many times). I have spent over 90% of my life petrified of animals and it feels great to be in the camp of those who know and experience the love of a pet. I am not completely cured of my fear of animals, but Thor has helped me to be less anxious when I see or am near an animal (let us be clear, we are talking domesticated animals). As of February 27, 2022, my new-found interest has doubled with the arrival of Thor’s new sister, Basil – a four-month-old Pitbull, who is a cute bundle of chaos.

Also, I am somewhat of a data-geek, with a weird sense of humor, and thought you might like to see my life if it were a bar chart and what my spare time looks like if it were a pie.