Maggie Irby Maggie Irby serves as the engagement resources lead with Advancement Operations

W&L News Office
September 28, 2022

Q. What is your official job title?
Engagement Resources Lead, Office of Advancement Operations.

Q. How long have you worked at W&L?
I started at the end of January 2022.

Q. What do you like most about working at W&L?
I love being on a college campus and the comradely attitude that everyone has.

Q. Where did you grow up?
I am an Army brat, but I consider Lexington my hometown. I moved here when I was nine.

Q. What is the most adventurous thing that you have ever done?
I moved across the country to work on a ranch in the middle of Wyoming after graduating college!

Q. What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not working?
I love to escape into other stories, whether it be by reading or watching TV or a movie. I also LOVE to ski when the conditions allow it! I try to get to the Rockies once a year to ski.

Q. If you could live anywhere, where would you build your dream home?
I would build my dream home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Q. Who most inspires you?
Dolly Parton. Dolly is a force to be reckoned with! She may not look like a savvy businesswoman, but just check out her Wikipedia page and you’ll learn otherwise!

Q. What book are you reading now?
I am currently reading a book written by my friend’s grandmother called “Perilous Times – An Inside Look At Abortion Before And After Roe vs. Wade.” It is a tale about her own experience with an illegal abortion in the 1950s.

Q. What music are you listening to these days?
Always Taylor Swift, but after the latest season of Stranger Things came out this summer, I’ve found myself listening to a lot of ’80s music — which I love.

Q. Your favorite film (movie) of all time?
This is a hard one. I have different favorites for different types of films, but I think one of my top five of all time is probably “Steel Magnolias.” It’s sweet and sentimental, has Dolly Parton in it, and it’s a female-led cast, which is pretty neat. I can watch it 100 times, but I never get sick of it.

Q. A website and/or blog you visit often?
I just purchased my first home, so I’ve been really into DIY blogs these days.

Q. If they made a movie about your life, who would play you?
I’ve never really thought about this, and I don’t think I necessarily have a celebrity doppelgänger, but maybe someone like Maya Hawke? She’s funny, she rambles a lot, and she loves film and music like me.

Q. If you could have coffee with one person (living or deceased) who would it be and why?
Queen Elizabeth II. I consider myself an Anglophile and I love British history. It would be fascinating to hear her stories.

Q. What is your desert island food?
Okra. I love it in any form — fried, grilled, even pickled!

Q. Tell us something most people don’t know about you?
Most people don’t know that I can recite almost every line from the movie “Grease.”

Q. What is your secret talent?
I’m a great whistler!

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