2024 40 Under 40: Victoria Gorham

To Victoria Gorham, leading is not about directing but guiding a group to the best outcome.

In her work for Grooms Office Environments as a senior workplace strategist, she wears many hats. Gorham, 31, focuses on commercial interior design and space planning, while managing a team of interior designers and support staff and teaching them to do the same.

At Grooms for over 10 years, Gorham says she’s taken charge of new concepts, such as creating the new job of a sales support role, which has grown into three positions.

She’s also involved in networking groups and volunteer organizations, including her role as president-elect of the Rotaract Club of Springfield. Her favorite accomplishment to date was working with CASA to help design, space plan and furnish the nonprofit’s new building in Joplin.

Your proudest moment? Graduating from Missouri State as a first-generation college student. Neither of my parents graduated from high school, and the magnitude of the achievement didn’t hit me until I was about to walk across the stage at graduation. 

Your professional aha moment? Even the people you look up to the most, that you might feel like they have all the right answers, are making things up as they go and we’re all learning from our mistakes. 

What did you learn the hard way? Some things are best to pay a professional – I learned that after trying to drywall and mud/tape at my first home remodel.