My story is not much different from that of others. I am a product of my parents' influence and values. I have a love for learning and a deep appreciation for education. Both of my parents are first-generation college graduates who then secured advanced degrees.
I grew up fueled by a community that wanted to see me succeed and become the best version of myself. I have deep roots in culture-rich Atlanta, the birthplace of the civil rights movement. A spiritual principle shaped my early upbringing: “To whom much is given, much is expected.” It reminds me that privilege, opportunity, and leadership go hand in hand and that much can be accomplished with the right determination.
I love to solve problems. I grew up in an environment where I did not see a limitation to my abilities. I was allowed to dream. And it’s that same environment I want to re-create in my work. I started in the front lines as a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines, obsessing over customers—a characteristic that has been beneficial to me as I’ve progressed through my career, and certainly at Amazon.
I have the privilege of serving as the vice president of Global Operations, Employee Experience and Relations for Amazon. These days, my customers are the more than 1 million employees that make everything possible from the time you place an order on Amazon.com. I partner with our Operations and People eXperience and Technology (PXT) leaders to create an environment that allows our employees to deliver the best, addressing, celebrating, and enhancing our overall employee experience. It is a continuous cycle that is driven by our people.
Here are four lessons I learned throughout my life and career that helped me understand how to create the best working environment for all Amazon employees.
1. Community-building is key to a thriving culture
I attribute much of my upbringing and core values to the influence of my parents and the community they built around them after relocating to Atlanta. This instilled in me an appreciation for giving back, caring for those around me, and understanding the true value of support systems. And that's really a stronghold for me today.
My role heavily involves creating a safe working environment for Amazon's vast operations workforce. I understand that feeling secure and supported is essential for employees to thrive and deliver exceptional customer experiences. In 2024 alone, we've committed $750 million toward creating a safe workspace with emphasis on ergonomics and creating opportunities to reduce repetitive motions or strenuous tasks for our people.
Having employees come to work with the confidence that they're going home in the same way that they came to work is important. This starts with building an environment that empowers our employees to raise any safety concerns without the fear of repercussions. It also means having leaders that model the safety behaviors that we think are most important and for those leaders to drive a sense of accountability in their sites that it is going to be a safe environment for our people.
2. Lifelong learning drives value and skills-building
With parents who were first-generation college graduates, I developed a deep love for learning and an understanding that higher education opens doors. I went to Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. It was close enough to Atlanta to make me still feel safe, but far enough for me to find my independence.
But not everyone has the opportunity to invest in higher education, and that’s why my team and I see a dire need to continue to invest in employees' professional development through a number of education-driven programs. Initiatives like Career Choice and Amazon AI Ready reflect Amazon's commitment to upskilling employees for long-term success. Skills-building never ends. We're all owners, and we're all leaders. And to succeed, we must have a love for learning and experimenting with the unknown.
3. Balancing the dive deep-think big paradox
In my career, I’ve learned the importance of being able to focus on details while maintaining a broad, forward-thinking perspective. This balance allows for better decision-making and vision-setting.
Leaders of the future need to learn how to balance diving deep with thinking big. Those are two of our leadership principles that quite often can be in conflict with each other or have some friction. But I think that's appropriate friction.
Thinking big means you have the ability to look around corners and think about what activities or what new innovations may be on the horizon. The ability to dive deep is equally important because it allows you to focus on the nuances. It allows you to think about both the micro and the macro. When you do that, you are able to make far better, big-scale decisions with large impact—and it's this big-scale impact we should all be striving for at Amazon.
4. Feedback is a gift
My front-line experiences shaped my career. I was exposed to a number of diverse experiences with people from all walks of life.
I learned very quickly feedback is a gift. It’s an opportunity to build your confidence and strengthen your leadership skills, no matter how big of a team you lead. There’s immense value in being vocally self-aware and open to criticism as a means for growth and improvement. It is this resilience that opens up the door for resilience and adaptability, core attributes of leaders that I find to be imperative.
Learn more from leaders at Amazon:
- I’m Amazon’s VP of Workplace Safety. Here are 3 lessons I’ve learned about developing a vision and effectively executing it.
- I lead HR at Amazon. Here are 3 career-building tips based on the company's Leadership Principles
- I’m an HR executive at Amazon. These are 5 lessons I’ve learned about leading successful, inclusive teams.
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