Delayna Blankenship

Philanthropy & Community LeadershipNonprofit LeadershipCollective GivingCivic EngagementPhilanthropic Leadership IndexLeadership Index

Sep 27

Written By CityBox Index

Membership Chair | IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area

Pensacola–Milton, Florida | Gulf Coast

Industry
Philanthropy & Community Leadership

Sector
Collective Giving, Nonprofit Leadership & Civic Engagement

Specialties
Philanthropy • Membership Development • Community Leadership • Collective Giving • Nonprofit Governance • Grant Review • Health & Wellness Initiatives • Aviation Leadership • Air Traffic Control • Quality Assurance • Training • Operational Planning • Community Engagement • Volunteer Leadership • Entrepreneurship

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Leadership Focus

Strengthening community impact through collective philanthropy, relationship-building and volunteer engagement; applying decades of aviation discipline and operational leadership to nonprofit service; expanding participation in community giving; supporting structured grant evaluation; and helping connect women, nonprofits and civic resources throughout the Pensacola Bay Area.

Delayna Blankenship Smith’s leadership story connects two worlds that may initially appear very different:

aviation and philanthropy.

Yet the skills required in each have remarkable overlap.

Attention.

Communication.

Responsibility.

Preparation.

Trust.

And the ability to understand how individual decisions affect a much larger system.

Before becoming deeply involved in the philanthropic community of Northwest Florida, Blankenship spent decades working within the Federal Aviation Administration. CityBox Magazine documented that her FAA career began at Pensacola TRACON in 1999 and eventually included responsibilities in Quality Assurance, Training, and Plans and Procedures. Her work required interaction with pilots and coordination with military aviation communities including NAS Pensacola and Whiting Field.

Today, those same principles inform a different kind of leadership.

As Membership Chair for IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area, Blankenship helps support an organization built around collective participation: women combining their resources, knowledge and time to create transformational grants for nonprofit organizations serving the community. Her current CityBox Index documentation identifies her as Membership Chair and a retired FAA air traffic controller whose leadership now spans aviation, philanthropy and community service.

Her trajectory reflects a powerful evolution:

from coordinating systems in which precision mattered to helping strengthen a community in which participation matters.

CityBox Executive Essence™

Delayna Blankenship is a community leader, philanthropist, entrepreneur and retired Federal Aviation Administration air traffic professional whose career reflects a consistent commitment to responsibility, disciplined decision-making and service.

Her professional foundation was built within one of the most demanding operational environments in the country.

CityBox Magazine documents that Blankenship joined the Federal Aviation Administration at Pensacola TRACON in 1999. Over the course of her aviation career, she advanced into responsibilities involving Quality Assurance, Training, and Plans and Procedures—areas in which accuracy, communication and adherence to established systems are central to operational safety.

Her work also placed her in regular communication with pilots and within the broader military aviation ecosystem surrounding Northwest Florida, including NAS Pensacola and Whiting Field.

Those years created a particular kind of leadership discipline.

In aviation, small details matter.

Communication must be clear.

Procedures exist for a reason.

Information must be understood before decisions are made.

And individuals must be able to function effectively as part of a much larger system.

Following her retirement from the FAA, Blankenship Smith redirected those skills toward entrepreneurship, philanthropy and community service.

She established Green Between, LLC in Florida in September 2017. Florida Division of Corporations records show the company remains active and identify Delayna S. Blankenship as its manager.

CityBox Magazine describes Green Between as a venture combining her project-management strengths with an interest in design and aesthetics.

Her community work expanded in parallel.

Blankenship became involved with IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area, where her volunteer leadership has included service as Health & Wellness Focus Area Chair and, more recently, Membership Chair. Gulf Breeze News documented her as chair of IMPACT 100's Health & Wellness committee during the organization's 2024 grant-review cycle.

Public nonprofit reporting for IMPACT 100 also identified Blankenship as a director during fiscal year 2024, adding a governance dimension to her record of service.

Her current CityBox Index documentation identifies her as Membership Chair of IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area.

The pattern throughout these roles is consistent.

Blankenship Smith does not simply participate.

She helps organize participation.

Executive Overview

Delayna Blankenship brings together professional experience in aviation, organizational systems, training, entrepreneurship, philanthropy and volunteer leadership.

A native of Austin, Texas and the daughter of a naval officer, she spent portions of her childhood in Hawaii and London before returning to Texas for college. CityBox Magazine reports that she earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Her professional career eventually brought her to Northwest Florida.

In 1999, she began working with the Federal Aviation Administration at Pensacola TRACON.

Pensacola occupies an unusual place within American aviation.

The region combines civilian airspace with an extraordinary concentration of military aviation activity, including Naval Air Station Pensacola and nearby Whiting Field.

Within that environment, Blankenship developed a career that extended beyond the technical demands of air traffic control.

She moved into work involving quality assurance.

Training.

Plans and procedures.

And professional communication with the people operating aircraft within the system.

CityBox Magazine describes her as regularly briefing pilots and working closely with both Whiting Field and NAS Pensacola.

Those experiences shaped a leadership style centered on preparedness.

Aviation does not reward ambiguity.

It requires individuals to understand procedures, communicate clearly and maintain awareness of an environment that may change rapidly.

That mindset would become transferable long after Blankenship left the control environment.

Her LinkedIn profile continues to document her FAA experience across multiple locations and identifies the University of Texas at Dallas as her educational institution. It also reflects a longstanding interest in public speaking that she traces to debate and oratory beginning in high school.

Following retirement, community involvement became increasingly central to her work.

One expression of that commitment has been therapy-animal service.

Her professional profile documents her work as a Pet Partners Therapy Dog Team Handler beginning in 2014, providing therapy-dog visits to assisted-living facilities, a local university and the Pensacola-area airport, while also expressing an interest in expanding support to military members and veterans.

CityBox Magazine further documented that she participated in the program with her daughter and their Doberman, Annie.

Another expression of service has remained connected to aviation.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association highlighted Blankenship Smith after her FAA retirement for representing the aviation-safety profession at Milton High School Career Day. More than 100 students were introduced to dozens of professions during the event, including aviation safety and air traffic control.

That initiative reveals another layer of her leadership:

experience becomes more valuable when it is passed forward.

Her work with IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area has become one of the clearest expressions of that principle.

IMPACT 100 is built around collective philanthropy—bringing women together around a structured grant-making process designed to generate significant funding for nonprofit organizations.

In 2024, Blankenship served as chair of the organization's Health & Wellness Focus Area Committee. That committee evaluated initiatives intended to improve the physical or mental well-being of individuals living throughout the Pensacola Bay Area. During that grant cycle, IMPACT 100 planned to distribute twelve grants of $100,670 each, totaling more than $1.2 million.

Serving as a focus-area chair is particularly aligned with Blankenship Smith's professional background.

Grant review requires process.

Documentation.

Evaluation.

Listening.

Questions.

Accountability.

And ultimately, judgment.

Those are different decisions from those encountered in aviation, but the underlying discipline is familiar.

Her progression into Membership Chair adds another dimension.

Membership leadership is about people.

It requires helping potential and existing members understand not simply how an organization functions, but why participation matters.

In a collective-giving organization, membership itself creates capacity.

More engaged members can mean greater philanthropic resources.

Greater resources can create larger grants.

Larger grants can create more significant opportunities for nonprofit organizations to expand their impact.

Blankenship therefore operates at an important point within the philanthropic ecosystem:

the relationship between individual participation and collective community investment.

Her entrepreneurial activity provides another expression of that ability to organize ideas into action.

Florida corporate records show that Green Between, LLC was formed September 25, 2017 and remains active as of its 2026 annual report, with Blankenship identified as manager.

CityBox Magazine describes the company as drawing upon her project-management abilities and appreciation for aesthetics.

Her professional journey was featured in the CityBox Magazine Luminaries: Women's Edition, where she was presented as Membership Chair of IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area and connected to Green Between LLC. The editorial feature emphasized her identity as a lifelong learner, community advocate and entrepreneur whose leadership was shaped by aviation and continued through service.

CityBox later described Blankenship's leadership as aviation-shaped—bringing precision, responsibility and adaptability into her work with IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area.

Her CityBox connection continued in 2026 through participation in the CityBox Index Executive Roundtable Women's Edition — Gulf Coast.

There, she joined women leaders representing construction, hospitality, banking, education, beauty and wellness, real estate and leadership intelligence. CityBox identified Blankenship as Membership Chair of IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area and a retired FAA air traffic controller, placing her at the intersection of aviation, philanthropy and community leadership.

That intersection is precisely what makes her leadership profile distinctive.

She has worked within a federal aviation system.

She has led within nonprofit philanthropy.

She has built an entrepreneurial venture.

She has participated in therapy-animal service.

She has introduced young people to aviation careers.

And she continues helping connect women to a collective model of community investment.

Different environments.

A consistent operating principle:

responsibility in service of something larger than oneself.

Why This Leader Matters

Communities are not strengthened by money alone.

They are strengthened by organized participation.

That distinction sits at the center of Delayna Blankenship Smith’s leadership story.

IMPACT 100's philanthropic model depends upon individuals choosing to participate in something collectively larger than any single contribution.

But collective action requires structure.

Members must be recruited and retained.

Grant applications must be reviewed.

Committees must function.

Organizations must be evaluated.

Questions must be asked.

Decisions must be made.

And the process must maintain the trust of the women contributing resources as well as the nonprofit organizations seeking support.

Blankenship’s professional history gives her an unusual background for that work.

Her FAA career was built around systems in which process and accountability were fundamental.

Her quality-assurance experience reinforced the importance of standards.

Her training experience required translating knowledge so others could use it.

Her plans-and-procedures work emphasized structure.

Her experience briefing pilots required communication.

Those qualities translate naturally into nonprofit leadership.

In 2024, she chaired IMPACT 100's Health & Wellness Focus Area Committee during a grant cycle in which the organization planned to award more than $1.2 million across twelve transformational grants.

That is not casual volunteerism.

It is structured civic responsibility.

Her current work as Membership Chair adds another important responsibility: helping sustain the human network that makes the philanthropic model possible.

And her service outside IMPACT 100 reinforces that orientation.

Through Pet Partners, she brought therapy-dog services into community settings. Through aviation outreach, she introduced students to the profession that shaped much of her career. Through Green Between, she created an entrepreneurial outlet for project management and design.

Taken together, these roles reveal a larger principle.

Leadership after a primary career does not have to mean stepping away from responsibility.

It can mean redirecting accumulated experience toward a different mission.

Blankenship has done precisely that.

CityBox Leadership Signals™

Strategic Orientation
Structured Community Impact & Collective Philanthropy

Blankenship's leadership combines the procedural discipline developed through aviation with structured community engagement. Her work within IMPACT 100 reflects a focus on organized participation, informed evaluation and collective investment in nonprofit initiatives.

Decision Style
Disciplined • Analytical • Collaborative

A career spanning air traffic operations, quality assurance, training and plans and procedures required consistent attention to systems, information and communication. CityBox has characterized her current leadership as bringing precision, responsibility and adaptability from aviation into philanthropy.

Primary Influence
Philanthropic Membership & Community Engagement

As Membership Chair of IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area, Blankenship operates within the part of the organization responsible for sustaining and expanding the network of women whose collective participation fuels transformational grant-making.

Leadership Strength
Translating Operational Discipline Into Community Service

Her distinctive strength is the transferability of her professional experience. Skills developed within the FAA—planning, communication, training, quality assurance and procedural discipline—now inform philanthropic and civic leadership.

Executive Signature
Precision With Purpose

Blankenship's leadership is defined by the intersection of disciplined execution and service: bringing structured thinking to environments where relationships, participation and community outcomes matter.

Leadership Environment
Philanthropy • Community Leadership • Nonprofit Governance • Aviation • Volunteer Service • Entrepreneurship • Gulf Coast Civic Engagement

Her leadership spans the Pensacola Bay Area's nonprofit, philanthropic, aviation and community-service ecosystems.

Selected Leadership Milestones

Education — University of Texas at Dallas

Earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Dallas after spending portions of her childhood in Hawaii, London and Texas as the daughter of a naval officer.

1999 — Federal Aviation Administration | Pensacola TRACON

Began her FAA career at Pensacola TRACON, establishing a professional foundation in air traffic operations within one of Northwest Florida's most aviation-intensive environments.

FAA Leadership — Quality Assurance, Training & Plans and Procedures

Advanced into roles involving Quality Assurance, Training, and Plans and Procedures. Her responsibilities included professional communication with pilots and coordination within the aviation communities surrounding NAS Pensacola and Whiting Field.

Retirement — Federal Aviation Administration

Retired following a career in federal aviation. Current CityBox Index documentation identifies Blankenship Smith as a retired FAA air traffic controller.

2014–Present — Pet Partners Therapy Dog Team Handler

Her professional profile documents volunteer service with Pet Partners beginning in 2014, providing therapy-dog visits to assisted-living facilities, a university and the local airport, with additional interest in supporting military and veteran communities.

2017 — Founder/Manager, Green Between LLC

Established Green Between, LLC in Florida in September 2017. State corporate records identify Delayna S. Blankenship as manager and show the company as active through its 2026 annual filing.

Aviation Career Outreach — Milton High School

Following retirement, represented the aviation-safety profession at Milton High School Career Day, sharing air traffic and aviation career experience with students. NATCA documented the outreach as part of an event exposing more than 100 students to approximately 70 professions.

IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area — Board/Director Service

Public nonprofit reporting for fiscal year 2024 identified Delayna Blankenship as one of the directors of IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area.

2024 — Health & Wellness Focus Area Chair | IMPACT 100

Served as chair of IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area's Health & Wellness Focus Area Committee, participating in a structured grant-review process centered on initiatives improving physical and mental well-being throughout the Pensacola Bay Area.

2025 — CityBox Magazine Luminaries: Women's Edition

Featured in the CityBox Magazine Luminaries Women's Edition, which documented her progression from aviation leadership to entrepreneurship, philanthropy and community service. The feature identified her as Membership Chair of IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area and highlighted Green Between LLC.

Membership Chair — IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area

Advanced into membership leadership for the philanthropic organization, supporting the network of women whose collective participation provides the foundation for IMPACT 100's grant-making model. CityBox Index continued to identify her in this role in 2026.

2026 — CityBox Index Executive Roundtable Women's Edition

Participated in the CityBox Index Executive Roundtable Women's Edition — Gulf Coast alongside women leaders spanning construction, hospitality, banking, education, beauty and wellness, and residential real estate.

The gathering extended Blankenship's CityBox presence beyond editorial storytelling into a cross-industry leadership environment centered on shared insight, relationship capital and community connection.

Experience The Coffee Table Book

See The Roundtable Women's Edition Article

See The Photos From The Luminaries Women's Edition In Person Event

CityBox Magazine Interview

CityBox Connections

Delayna Blankenship's relationship with CityBox spans editorial recognition, civic leadership and cross-industry relationship building.

Her CityBox Magazine Luminaries Women's Edition feature documented the experiences shaping her leadership—from aviation and entrepreneurship to philanthropy and volunteer service.

Her subsequent participation in the CityBox Index Executive Roundtable Women's Edition connected her with women executives, founders and organizational leaders working across multiple industries throughout the Gulf Coast.

Together, those experiences position Blankenship within the CityBox ecosystem as a bridge between professional expertise and civic leadership.

Tanya Simpson

A cross-industry leadership connection established through the CityBox Index Executive Roundtable Women's Edition.

As President of Emerald Coast Granite & Tile, Simpson represents construction, stone fabrication and interior finishes. Her participation alongside Blankenship Smith demonstrates the Roundtable's role in bringing private-sector business leadership into conversation with philanthropy and community service.

Melissa Weber

An entrepreneurial and hospitality connection developed through the CityBox Index Executive Roundtable Women's Edition.

Weber, Founder and Owner of The Thirsty Ranch, represents hospitality, beverage and event services. Her entrepreneurial background intersects with Blankenship Smith's work through Green Between LLC while their respective community roles create another point of connection around Gulf Coast relationship-building.

Gwen Smith

A financial-services and community-leadership connection through the CityBox Index Executive Roundtable Women's Edition.

As Senior Vice President and Retail Market Manager within banking and financial services, Smith operates within an industry closely connected to business development, nonprofit organizations and community investment. Her participation alongside Blankenship Smith created a natural intersection among finance, philanthropy and civic leadership.

Dr. Joanna Johannes

An education and community-leadership connection established through the CityBox Index Executive Roundtable Women's Edition.

As Founder and Superintendent of Lighthouse Private Christian Academy, Dr. Johannes represents educational leadership, while Blankenship Smith's own record includes both community philanthropy and career education outreach.

Their respective work reflects different approaches to investing in people and communities over the long term.

Mary Alexander

A wellness, entrepreneurship and community connection developed through the CityBox Index Executive Roundtable Women's Edition.

Alexander's work in beauty, wellness and aesthetic services differs professionally from Blankenship Smith's aviation and philanthropic background, yet both represent leaders whose careers have evolved across multiple professional chapters.

Their connection demonstrates the value of bringing distinct experiences into the same leadership conversation.

Brigette Brooks

A real-estate and business-leadership connection established through the CityBox Index Executive Roundtable Women's Edition.

As a team lead and REALTOR®, Brooks represents residential real estate and entrepreneurial sales leadership. Her participation with Blankenship Smith further expanded the Roundtable's cross-industry network across the Gulf Coast.

Through CityBox Magazine and CityBox Index, Delayna Blankenship’s documented relationships now extend across philanthropy, aviation, construction, banking, hospitality, education, wellness, entrepreneurship and real estate.

That breadth is fitting.

Her own leadership career has never been confined to one category.

Aviation taught her how systems work.

Quality assurance reinforced standards.

Training strengthened communication.

Entrepreneurship created another outlet for execution.

Volunteer service placed those capabilities in direct contact with people.

And philanthropy created an opportunity to apply them toward the future of an entire community.

Delayna Blankenship's leadership demonstrates that retirement from a profession does not require retirement from purpose.

Sometimes it creates the space for purpose to take a new form.

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