Accolade: Lynn Woodward coordinator for campus advocacy

Lynn Woodward knows how to get down and dirty -- and she's not averse to getting neck-deep in the campus compost pile either. Woodward, BS '72, worked in every flower bed on campus when she was horticulturist from 1996 through 2004, minus three years she spent in Nashville, Tenn. Now, she designs the biannual change-outs of all 100-plus beds on campus and is a consultant on different plant cultivars such as the landscaping at the recently renovated Bear Habitat. She also is the coordinator for campus advocacy and serves as a liaison between Baylor Facility Services (BFS) and the University. One of her duties is to contact building coordinators across campus to assess their satisfaction with BFS's job performance. She also reviews surveys submitted to the Service Response Center upon completion of a work order on campus. If any of the comments express dissatisfaction, she follows up to see how the technicians' service can improve. One of her favorite garden projects is the 2003 addition of Mutabilis roses at the Armstrong Browning Library, because "the roses add a lot to that building and to its grace," she says. The Wilson-Jones Memorial Garden also is special to her. It's the gift from the 2005 seniors in honor of professors F. Ray Wilson and Robert Jones, who died in 2004. "That is still a very nascent garden, very young. But it's going to be beautiful in the years to come. When those seniors come back to the succeeding Homecomings, that will be fun for them to see," Woodward says. And then there's Woodward's culinary side. Last February, she began hosting monthly Cookies 'n Blossoms parties for the campus, each one set at a different garden spot. She provides homemade cookies and pastries and serves lemonade. "I love people, and I love to talk," she says. "I've never been shy around people." Woodward says BFS began the parties to provide "a time when people can get away from their desks and enjoy nature." Word is her lemon bars are to die for, and that's another of her skills she shares -- offering baking classes for students in the North Village Residential Community. Last spring she met in one four-session course with six students, some of whom had never cracked an egg before, she says. "I just love to cook, and I want to pass it on," she says. "We had so much fun. We laughed, we cut up, and they turned out their first cinnamon rolls." She continued the classes this past fall on Monday nights with new students. Woodward also is known for her "snack attacks," i.e., surprising Baylor faculty and residence hall directors with homemade goodies. "I'll attack with sweet rolls when you least expect it," she says. Some people describe this generous, multitalented woman as a mixture of Superwoman and Martha Stewart, but she disagrees. "I'm far too wacky and free-spirited to be at all measured in that light," she says. "I just love to make people comfortable and serve people." A native Wacoan and a second-generation Baylorite -- her father, Dr. Joe Woodward, graduated in 1938 -- Woodward says she just wants "to finish up my life making people around me happy," although she also admits, "I'm always trying to save the whole world." Her infectious good humor leaves its mark across campus. "I've come to realize on a much deeper scale how many fabulous people there are here at Baylor," she says. "It's fun. I have a wonderful job. I love every minute of it. It's very fulfilling, and there's no place like home." -- Jennifer Russell