Taking Care of Business

Dean Amy Henley Leads with Soul and Grace

University of Louisville College of Business Dean Amy Henley has previously referred to herself as “whiskey in a teacup.” During her first few months on campus, she’s proven she’s just that—refined but potent. While she may not quote Elvis outright, her southern roots and vintage TCB lightning bolt necklace, a trademark symbol worn by the legendary singer, reflect how she shows up as a woman, wife, mother and leader: focused, resilient and charged with purpose. Raised on Gulf Coast grit, college football and the kind of kitchen-table wisdom only a father forged in the fire of civil rights-era Mississippi could offer, Henley brings more than strategy to the college—she brings soul. Her leadership is about impact, not flash. Grounded in lived experience and fueled by quiet fire, Henley is a little less conversation and a little more action–especially when giving every student the chance to dream bigger than they were told was possible.

Raised to Stand

“I was born in Panama City, [and] grew up on the Gulf Coast, on the Gulf of Mexico,” said Henley. “Growing up on the beach is a whole different vibe,” she explained. While this was one of the best parts of her childhood, traveling to visit southern universities with her father was what truly lit a spark within her; each university visit fanned the flames of Henley’s desire to work in higher education. “We traveled to college sporting events all the time,” she said. “That’s where my love for higher education and my desire to be in higher education came from.”

From their shared joy of attending collegiate football games, to listening to the stories of his own experiences as a student, the way in which Henley lives and leads is rooted in the quiet, fierce integrity of her father—a man who showed her what it meant to stand up for others when no one else would. During his time as a student at the University of Southern Mississippi in the late 1960s, he worked night shifts at a bread factory alongside one other man: a Black coworker who became his friend. “It was a segregated lunch room and they were the only two people in there,” Henley explained. “My dad said he knew better than to ask his friend to sit in the white section because it would cause trouble for him. So, my dad sat in the Black section with his friend.” The next morning, a limo pulled up outside—inside it was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. “They put the window down and said, ‘We hear you’re causing a lot of trouble around here, boy.’ He got the message, but he kept causing trouble.”

That same fearless spirit lives in her now. “He raised me to always speak up for those who don’t have the chance to speak up for themselves,” she said. “It was a big deal to him that his children be an example of that.” Two of her father’s sayings continue to guide her leadership: “Who did you help today?” and “Most people aren’t thoughtless—they’re just not thoughtful.” In Henley’s hands, those lessons have become a compass she now follows with clarity, empathy and a willingness to stand up for others when it matters most.

Trading Profit for Purpose

Before she transitioned into higher education, Henley spent her early career navigating the business world of finance, transportation and logistics. That experience allowed her to gain a seat at the table and observe how decisions were made in the corporate world. As a young analyst reporting to a CFO, she was often the youngest voice in the room, but that didn’t keep her from noticing when things didn’t sit right. “Seeing how people were treated in the justification of finances didn’t make sense to me,” she recalled. “I thought, ‘Well, here are these C-suite executives that have 40 years of experience, [and] I’ve got four months. Surely they know what they’re doing better than I do—but how do they not see that?’”

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The dissonance was apparent when it came to valuing employees. “Somebody would come in and want a $5,000 raise, and they would say, ‘Okay, we can do $3,000,’ and they would still lose the person. Then, they would…hire a brand-new person, and they would end up paying more than the original person wanted anyway,” she said. “They lost all that experience that is invaluable. That’s what I couldn’t understand as a 25-year-old.”

While she appreciated the technical skills she gained—especially in accounting and budgeting—it wasn’t enough to quell the growing fire inside her that was pulling her toward service to others. “I wasn’t making the difference that I wanted to feel like I was making,” Henley said. “I knew what higher education had done for me and the doors it could open, particularly for first-generation [and] low-income students. I just really wanted to make that difference.” Eventually, the repetition of corporate life became a wake-up call. “I remember telling one of the people in the accounting department at my corporate job, ‘I don’t want March 11 to be the same as July 10, and every day to be the same.’ She said, ‘Well, that’s life, Amy. That’s just called having a job.’ I said, ‘But it doesn’t have to be.’”

From the Ground Up

That drive to make a difference eventually led Henley back to the world that first sparked her imagination: higher education. However, returning to campus didn’t mean leaving behind high-stakes challenges. If anything, they only got bigger. As Dean of the University of North Dakota’s Nistler College of Business and Public Administration, Henley faced the greatest challenge of her professional career: raising $70 million for a new building. Despite having no fundraising experience, she didn’t flinch–at least, not on the outside. “It was a little intimidating and [I thought,] ‘Okay, how do we do this? Where do we start?’” she admitted. Still, she took the challenge head-on, ultimately raising $118 million toward the project.

Little did Henley know that her leadership would once again be tested with the rise of COVID-19. This time, she wasn’t responsible for a brick-and-mortar building, but the well-being of an entire community of students, faculty and staff. “When people are uncertain or frightened, they’re looking for direction,” she said. “I remember at one point telling the staff, ‘I don’t know these answers. Nobody really knows these answers right now. But what I can promise you is there’s a lot of hardworking, good people trying to figure out these answers.’”

Perhaps the most profound example of her heart-forward leadership came during the quiet, difficult summer of staff layoffs resulting from the pandemic. With moral support from her husband, current UofL Professor David Cason, Henley focused her energy on providing as much aid as possible to impacted employees. Spending hours in her home office, she crunched the numbers to help everyone stay afloat. “I calculated out what their breakeven point would be,” she explained. “I figured out how many hours every employee could work and still net out the same amount of income as they had through other sources,” she explained. “That was something I was really proud of because that’s something nobody saw…the way that I was able to determine that everybody stayed whole.”

Many Hearts, One Mission

Upon her arrival at UofL, it didn’t take long for Henley to sense the heartbeat of the college—and it wasn’t quiet. “I was pleasantly surprised by how many impassioned people are doing great things,” she said. “I was at the Cardinal Challenge [my] first week,” she said. “It was infectious, the passion people had, and that’s continued to be true.”

Now, Henley’s vision is focused on cultivating that passion into something more collaborative–nurturing a sense of community within the college and developing a better means for departments to connect and interact more with one another. “We have the foundation of community,” she said. “[However,] we’re a little more siloed…There’s a lot of great people doing a lot of great things, but they don’t necessarily know what the other ones are doing. If we engaged more directly and intentionally with one another, we would know where those pieces all fit together.”

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That clarity of purpose also extends to how she defines success—not in titles or accolades, but in possibility. “Success for me in higher education is helping a kid believe that there are endless possibilities—helping a student dream a dream they never knew they could because maybe they didn’t have an example.” Henley knows from experience how transformative higher education can be—especially for those who’ve never been told they belong in the room.

As dedicated as she is to providing avenues for learning and growth, Henley also knows that opportunities for UofL business students could not happen without staff behind the scenes. “[They] are the backbone of what we do,” she said. “They allow us to be faculty, and they allow us the luxury of getting to teach.” Ultimately, Henley’s goal for the college’s campus community is clear. “I want staff, faculty and students [to] always feel valued. That’s most critical to me. If [they] don’t feel valued, I have failed at my job.”

Leading Like a Lady

Henley finds meaning at home and off-campus in everyday rituals that remind her who she is beyond her role as dean. “I love nothing more than being a mom [to Collier and] a wife and partner to David,” she said. “He always says he runs the house, and I run the college, and it’s very true.” With a family dynamic that is both supportive and strategic, she explains that, “as a working mom… I know how lucky I am that…[David’s] got his teaching schedule set up so that he can pick up our son and drop him off every day, and they have an amazing relationship.” That structure allows Henley to pour herself fully into the college, knowing her nine-year-old son is cared for, and that he’ll be waiting at the end of a long day with news about caterpillars, not emails.

While Cason runs the home, he also provides her with continued encouragement and constructive feedback. “He’s not afraid to tell me, ‘Well, you overreacted to that,’ or ‘Do you think they would’ve treated a man that way?’” Henley said. It’s insight she’s learned to take seriously. “A lot of times, it’s what we put on ourselves,” she said. That internalized pressure is something she’s witnessed in the women around her and has worked to release.

Henley believes emotion in leadership isn’t weakness—it’s wisdom. Not one to shy away from the nuances of being a woman in a space that hasn’t always made room for sensitivity or femininity, she explained, “My associate dean of research back at Nistler always got a kick out of me. One day, he said, ‘You are just a spitfire.’ I said, ‘Don’t you know about southern women? We’re whiskey in a teacup.’” For Henley, that image isn’t a metaphor but a mission statement. Strong but graceful. Complex but clear. She is ready to lead, learn and advocate for those around her through every obstacle with empathy, precision and the insistence that doing the right thing matters. Just like her iconic necklace, each day Henley’s goal is to take care of business–even when no one’s watching.

20 of Dean Henley’s favorite things

About the UofL College of Business:

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