What initially inspired you to get into the hospitality business?
Honestly, I was looking for a summer job in high school and happened to get a front desk job—and fell in love. Since then, I have worked in operations and then moved to accounting as I got even luckier that I could combine my two passions.
Who were some of your mentors or role models and what were their most valuable lessons?
I was blessed to have phenomenal mentors in life and as I grew in my career starting with my dad, who taught me to always follow my heart and trust my gut, and my grandmother’s sorority sister, who always told me that people can take everything except your knowledge. Professionally, my greatest mentor was Mike Straube, who has extreme patience; as he would teach me, sometimes he would explain the treatment or reasoning five different ways until I grasped it. I have been extremely grateful in my career to have such a great mentor, and I can only hope to pay it forward.
What’s your outlook for the future with regard to diversity and inclusion within hospitality?
Hospitality is all about people, including our own, so diversity and inclusion are extremely important to our industry in every facet. We must continue to share our experiences with all our guests and team members as that is the bread and butter of what hospitality is all about.
In your opinion, how is the lodging industry performing in terms of getting women into leadership positions?
The amount of women colleagues who are in leadership positions now from when I first started my career 20 years ago has grown exponentially, and it is very exciting to see. I can’t wait to see how this continues into the future.
