Allyson Farrar’s day starts at 4:15 a.m. Before she gets to the office, she’s already made four stops at businesses around Bellingham. Depending on the day, she might head down to Bellevue for a full work day, followed by night classes.
“I do a lot of driving,” she said. “I put like 25,000 miles a year on my car.”
Farrar works at Walker Group Ventures, where she is the human resources manager for all the company’s businesses in Washington: all three Scotty Browns restaurants, Barre3 fitness studio and No. 1 Automotive Body Repair.
She started as an office manager for just the restaurants, but quickly noticed a need at the company for cohesive HR practices.
“In my time there, I kept feeling like there were missing pieces,” she said. “There weren’t a whole lot of systems in place to track things like performance.”
So, she decided to make those systems herself. That included writing handbooks and job descriptions for every position at the company. That also included going back to school — she enrolled in a program at Bellevue College and is working toward her human resources management certification. In addition to her full-time job, she goes to Bellevue for class one night a week. Sometimes that means a 19-hour day.
“When you have a goal in mind, it doesn’t matter if you’re tired,” she said. “You just get it done.”
When she’s not working or going to class, Farrar is giving back. She volunteers with the Bellingham Warriors Lacrosse Club, as well as the Wounded Warriors Program. She became involved in giving back to military service members and their families when her own brother was injured while serving in Iraq in the Marines.
“That was an experience that changes your life forever,” she said. She brings baked goods to wounded soldiers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord regularly, and visits families who have loved ones at the veterans hospital.
“Being able to help people that have been exactly where I’ve been, I can’t describe it,” she said.
Allyson Farrar is one of this year’s winners of the Top 7 Under 40 Award. Click here to read about the rest of the winners.
