Founder of Blue Iris
I'm Jerra Toms, founder of Blue Iris Consulting. Here's a bit more about the background and experience I bring to every client engagement.
I have spent 15+ years in marketing and communications scaling teams, raising millions in funding, building regional audiences from scratch, and partnering with executives across higher education, consumer brands, media, and growth-stage organizations.
Most recently, I served as Director of Marketing & Communications at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, where I scaled my team from 4 to 15 people, drove 250%+ LinkedIn follower growth and 320%+ Instagram follower growth, increased Dean LinkedIn engagement by 909% year-over-year, and delivered $426K in first-year budget savings.
Before that, I founded leisurlist, a regional media platform focused on bringing together everything to eat, see and do in Northwest Arkansas. I built the brand and platform from the ground up, raising $2M in funding, tripling advertising revenue, and growing an audience to 880,000+ page views, 21,000+ social followers, and 4,400+ email subscribers.
Prior to that I worked for Walmart corporate where I led the employment brand social media strategy, driving 300% LinkedIn engagement growth. Earlier in my career at Collective Bias (now Inmar Intelligence), I led integrated shopper social media campaigns for national consumer brands including Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Hershey, and Tyson Foods, contributed to $6M+ in new business, and was part of the team with Coca-Cola that won a 2015 Gold Shopper Marketing Effie Award.
I founded Blue Iris Consulting in 2021 to bring that same caliber of strategic thinking to organizations that need experienced marketing and communications leadership without a full-time hire. I work with clients across a range of industries to clarify positioning, sharpen messaging, and build the kind of focused strategy that actually gets executed. I hold an MBA with a focus in Retail Marketing and a Bachelor's degree in Marketing Management, both from the University of Arkansas.
The through line across my career has been the same: understanding what an organization is trying to build, finding the right strategy to get there, and doing the work that actually moves the needle.
With 6+ years of hands-on experience designing, planting, and maintaining edible gardens in Northwest Arkansas' unique climate and conditions, I specialize in helping clients grow their own food — including in-ground gardens, raised beds, container gardens on a patio, and incorporating beautiful yet edible options into existing landscaping.
I understand what grows well here, how to use organic practices to maintain healthy soil, how to plan for succession planting and season extension, and how to create productive gardens that work with — not against — our environment. My focus is on making food gardening accessible, successful, and sustainable for clients at any skill level. In 2025, I completed my Master Gardener certification in Benton County, Arkansas, adding formal credentials to years of practical experience.
My edible garden consulting work includes helping Northwest Arkansas residents with outdoor growing space design and build systems that fit their space, their goals, and their lifestyle—whether that's planning a complete garden from scratch, troubleshooting existing gardens, incorporating pollinator plants, or simply helping clients understand what will actually thrive and produce in their specific conditions.
I named the company Blue Iris Consulting because blue irises represent faith and hope, two qualities I believe are essential to both growing organizations and growing food.
In marketing and communications work, you need faith that the right strategy will connect with your audience, and hope that your message will resonate and drive meaningful change. In gardening, you need faith that the seeds you plant will germinate, and hope that the systems you build will produce abundance.
Both require you to trust the process, prepare the conditions for success, and believe that growth is possible—even when you can't see it yet. That is what I bring to every client, every project, and every garden: faith in what is possible and hope for what we can grow together.
Outside of work I love spending time with my husband and spoiled cocker spaniel, Duke, friends and family. I love gardening (of course), cooking and especially baking (Great British Baking Show super fan), reading, traveling and exploring all things local in Northwest Arkansas. I also serve on the Advisory Committee with the Best Friends Pet Resource Center in Bentonville, as a Founding Board Member of the Northwest Arkansas Local Food Network, and as an Alumni Advisor for Kappa Kappa Gamma.