Year Honored: 2021
Born in: Delaware
Biography
Fayetta M. Blake is the founder and Executive Director of Pathways to Success, Inc. She is also an entrepreneur with businesses throughout Delaware and Maryland. Blake started her career thirty-four years ago with the Security Pacific National Bank where she worked as a loan officer for five years, before enjoying a 20-year banking career at All First Financial. She would go on to become the company’s first African American Senior Vice-President of Operation in the company’s 200-year history.
After leaving the banking world, Blake established Pathways to Success Inc. in 2006. Blake was taught by her Grandmother and Mother that knowledge was strength, and that “no matter how little they had, it was their job to give to those who had even less.” Her work as Executive Director allows her to fulfill that calling. It embodies her need and passion to give back to the community, especially in Sussex County where she was born and raised. Pathways to Success works with at-risk students to offer guidance, after-school assistance, and programs for those who otherwise may have dropped out.
Employees and friends of Blake have commented on her dedication to serving the at-risk youth Pathways to Success caters too. She has gone above and beyond for the youth in her community, providing clothes for job interviews, technology for distance learning, and meals for students and their families. Blake’s organization has a 98% graduation rate, with 96% of those graduates going onto college, joining the military, or entering the workforce.
Blake has been recognized as one of Delaware Today’s Women in Business. She is also on the board of the Delaware Alliance for Non-Profit Advancement and Habitat for Humanity.
Blake has been married to Cornelius Blake for more than 40 years and is a proud mother of three adult children: Alex, Justin, and Melody. She has five grandchildren – 4 grandsons and 1 granddaughter.
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Sources and Additional Reading
Lauria, M. (2016, June 7). Fay Blake Forges Her Own Pathway to Success. Cape Gazette.
Lauria, M. (2016, November 14). 'Sussex County Girls Rock!’. Cape Gazette.
Welcome to pathways 2 success. Pathways to Success. (2019, August 26). Retrieved October 7, 2021, from https://www.pathways-2-success.org/.
- Collections: 2021, Black History Month