Kara Wooldrik doesn’t just talk the talk—she walks the walk. As executive director of the non-profit Portland Trails, she runs an organization that oversees seventy miles of trails spread across Portland, South Portland, Falmouth and Westbrook. In a typical year she’ll probably rack up a thousand miles on those walking paths.
“I’m either exercising or walking my dog or doing work,” she told me. “And I do a lot of walking meetings, so I take people for a walk on the trails as we walk and talk about whatever topic.” There’s much to be said for walking meetings. Steve Jobs, the genius who founded and ran Apple, thought they were a superb way to freshen one’s thinking and come up with new ways of looking at problems. Wooldrik likes to use them when interviewing job applicants. “It’s an excuse to get out of the office and out of routine,” she says. “I find that you make different connections with people in a more casual environment.”
What else can one get out of a walk on Portland’s trails? And why are people in other countries looking at what Portland Trails is doing? Watch our interview with Wooldrik to find out.