Jacksonville-based Dedie Campbell has won HomeBanc’s “Leader of the Year” award. It goes to a non-sales employee who, according to the company, “has shown extraordinary leadership.”
“I’m humbled,” said Campbell. “You can’t say much more than that.”
Campbell balances a family life - four kids under 12 - with a job that requires her to lead a marketing department that stretches, literally, across the state. She and her staff of five direct the company’s marketing efforts as well as the community work.
She received the award last month at HomeBanc’s annual convention in Atlanta. Campbell came to North Florida in October 2002 when HomeBanc opened an office in Jacksonville. She had been in Tampa, but had lived here when her husband was in the Navy.
“We jumped at the chance to come back here,” she said. They live in the Mandarin area and her husband, who had been with HomeBanc also, has opted to be a house husband.
“He’s very comfortable with it,” said Campbell. “He said that he had his career and now it’s my turn.”
A Maryland native, she saw a goodly part of the nation as the wife of a Naval aviator. “I enjoyed work, too,” she said. “My parents instilled a work ethic in me.”
And work she must.
In addition to her travel to the Central Florida Region offices in Orlando, Tampa and Sarasota - “How much travel? Too much, my husband says” - she’s active in the company’s local community work.
“We have two major projects, Habitat and the American Cancer Society,” she explained. “We built a Habitat home this year - raised the money and got the volunteers. And, we were the leading fundraiser in the Relay for Life on the Southside for cancer.”
She credits her team of Marla Wood, Anissa Hernandez, Maureen McGuire and Sarah Copper for helping get the award.
And they helped her get yet another honor.
McGuire and her teammates nominated Campbell for the company’s Customer Service Award.
“She understands how important it is to build relationships with our sales force and sacrifices personal time ... to do it,” wrote McGuire. “She truly is a World Class Leader.”