Delta executives share experiences and advice on Career Explorations panel

Three Grady College alumnae from Delta Air Lines participated in a panel discussion Sept. 24 in Career Explorations, a course taught by Charles Davis, dean of Grady College. 

The Delta colleagues included:

• Allison Ausband (ABJ ’93), executive vice president and chief people officer 

• Kristen Manion Taylor (ABJ ’96, MBA ’97), senior vice president, brand experience 

• Amy Harry (ABJ ’96), managing director, global communications

The Career Explorations class is offered to pre-Grady students as an introduction to careers and the industries served by alumni of the College. 

As the panelists started talking about their work at Delta, they reflected on how the skills they learned at Grady College are still being used in their work today. 

Ausband talked about how she still uses skills she learned as when she was a telecommunication arts major (now entertainment and media studies). 

“It was a lot around writing and it was a lot around storytelling. It was a lot around understanding what was going on in the world every day and how do you tell a story about it? How do you influence people about it? This really is the degree that keeps on giving, no matter what area you focus on.”

The panel also discussed the special culture at Delta, and some of their employee events like pulling an aircraft in support of the American Cancer Society or painting a plane pink in support of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

“I think something that’s special about Delta is getting to do huge things,” said Harry, who said she had the opportunity to select Viola Davis as the company spokesperson. “Getting the opportunity to raise your hand and do something where the answer is pretty much always ‘yes’…is a great environment to be a part of.”

Harry said she interned at Delta when she was an advertising major at Grady College, and returned to the company after working a few years on the agency side after graduation.

The panelists also talked about the power of storytelling in moving their “people first” culture forward. 

“It’s a lot of people to bring into a company where you cherish the culture, and you want to match the values with people you hire,” Ausband said.

Manion spoked about the importance of taking care of colleagues.

“We believe if we take care of our people, they will take care of our customers,” Manion, who also majored in telecommunication arts, continued. “We have a lot of events where we pull everybody together and talk about the business and make sure that they understand what we’re doing but also reinforce how important it is that they’re delivering moments of delight every single day for our customers.”

Dean Davis added that inquiring about the corporate culture is an important question to ask during an interview. 

The panelists provided examples of types of storytelling they do from emotional storytelling like their Centennial celebration last year and the recent story of one of their employees who donated a kidney to a customer, to financial storytelling covering topics like COVID and how the price of fuel affects travel and pricing. 

They also talked about the importance Delta places on staying up-to-date on international news because of the impact it has on air travel. 

“I always say you can look at the top 10 headlines on any given day and chances are eight of them will impact our business,” Manion said. 

She added there is so much the company can’t control, but keeping employees informed so they can keep customers informed is important in responding to challenging situations. 

Delta believes that building trust among their customers is the thing that keeps people coming back, whether it’s a blue sky day or a gray sky day.

“On those gray sky days, it’s even more important that we show up and that we give you the information that you need, that you can self-serve on digital devices, but we also are giving our people the latitude to help you in those situations so we can get you on the way,” Manion said. “It’s a hard, hard business to make that happen, but we believe that we build trust over time with our customers.

The panel discussion concluded with a trivia competition where the three winning students who answered Delta-specific questions each received a large suitcase on wheels. 

Author: Sarah Freeman, freemans@uga.edu