Alumni Special: Heather Dill

Job Title: Director of Sales and Marketing at Embassy Suites

Location: Tuscaloosa, Alabama

UA Online Program: MS in Hospitality Management

Graduation Year: 2018

Fun Fact: Heather is a karaoke queen!

Heather Dill graduated from The University of Alabama’s College of Human Environmental Sciences in 2005 through the Hospitality Management program and began a successful career in an industry she loves. Just a couple of years ago, she enrolled in the online master’s program in Restaurant and Hospitality Management through UA Online to expand her career opportunities. After her graduation in 2018, we knew she was a rising star to keep an eye on! We caught up with her recently to discuss her experience as a UA Online student and how the online master’s has helped her reach her goals.

UAO: Tell us about your job.

HD: I’m Director of Sales and Marketing for the Embassy Suites hotel in Tuscaloosa. In addition to our guest rooms, we have 8,000 square feet of meeting space including private dining rooms and the restaurant Side by Side. Our occupancy rates fluctuate throughout the year, but we tend to stay pretty full — about 93% last week. In May 2014, three weeks before I had my second child, I started working for the hotel before it even opened – there weren’t even any walls to the building yet!

UAO: Oh, wow. It sounds like a pretty demanding job. So … you have this career, two children who keep you pretty busy I’m sure, and you’re involved in professional organizations and are actively engaged in your community. What in the world motivated you to pursue a master’s degree at this time in your life?

HD: I decided I might want to teach in the field, so that was really what made me want to go back. Our hotel is involved with the RHM department through internships, so I knew Dr. Kim Severt pretty well already. She was really my encourager and pushed me to consider the program, and having someone I trusted who works with the program and who has spent time in the industry made it an easy decision for me to follow through.

UAO: Since you mention the main campus program, how different would it have looked for you to pursue the same degree in an on-campus format?

HD: Uh, impossible. Completely. I think that was my favorite part of the program – the flexibility of it. It absolutely wouldn’t have been possible had I not been able to do it online. I was able to complete classwork during downtimes at work, at home, on the weekends. You know, even at midnight if I needed to, I could be working on my coursework, so that was a tremendous benefit.

I will say, too, that because I’m local to Tuscaloosa, UA Online was beneficial because I got to know my professors and could drop by and see them, which was a positive for me. So for locals who hear “UA Online” and don’t think it’s for them, it is still the way to go if you’re working. You have that connection and ease to connect with your faculty face to face if you want to.

UAO: How do you think your master’s will help you progress in your career and move forward?

HD: For me, it’s more about opening up different opportunities. Hospitality is a little different than a lot of fields because it’s more dependent on experience, but I learned certain leadership skills that will help me be better at developing others’ talents and just being a better leader in general. But it also has given me the credentials I need to teach what I’ve spent my career learning in the field.

UAO: That’s right — you are teaching now, right?

HD: I am teaching, yes. One class on Monday nights for the main campus Event Marketing class. So far, I’ve really enjoyed it.

UAO: Are there any particular strengths of the Restaurant and Hospitality Management program or course concepts that have been beneficial to your career?

HD: In addition to the leadership skills I already mentioned, the Hospitality Law class was very interesting for me. It made me consider our liabilities as hoteliers, and to see how it’s different in the classroom than in real-world application. I would encourage people to go back after spending some time in their industry. Going back gives you a completely different mindset because I have so much experience, and the content that I learned through the program was directly related to and applicable to my experiences, so I was able to understand it in a deeper way.

UAO: Have you maintained contact with any friends you made through the program, either fellow students or faculty?

HD: All of the faculty I have a working relationship with through our partnership at the hotel. But I did connect with other students of the program. Even one classmate I’ve known of through professional connections, I was able to deepen our relationship through our student interactions, and now friendships like that are mutually beneficial to both of us in our careers.

Dr. Mary Kay Meyer taught a lot of the leadership courses, and she even hosted get-togethers for students of the program to connect in-person — whether they were local or didn’t mind driving down from Birmingham or wherever they were for the event, so it was a benefit that allowed some face time and connection and networking for fellow students, even though it’s a nontraditional, distance program.

UAO: Do you have advice for people in the program?

HD: Evaluating your time commitments is important. Don’t take on too much at one time. I took one class the first semester to see how I could manage it, and then I added to my course load in other semesters. It was really challenging to take two classes during football season (my husband is a football coach), but depending on your goals and lifestyle, you should plan your courses out in a way that makes sense for your life. It’s also helpful to look at the courses that are offered during different semesters so that you can take the ones you need to take when they’re available.

UAO: What’s one tip you have for people who may be considering enrolling in a UAO program?

HD: Just do it. Honestly, if I can do it, anybody can do it. I have two kids that are young, I work full time and so does my husband. But you make time for what’s important to you, so if it’s a goal that you have, why would you not do it?

It was a really proud moment to finish my master’s. Not just to rise to the challenge of earning it during a busy time of life, but I also think it was really important for my daughters to see that. That’s why I decided to walk at graduation, because I wanted them to see that hard work pays off in the end, and you can do anything you put your mind to.