In 1998, I boarded my first flight as a flight attendant and eventually a double career as a freelance writer and author – a combination that was the impetus to an exciting career. On the plane, the energy, teamwork and responsibility of passenger care felt natural to me, but I knew I wanted to do more.
I noticed something: Behind every flight, every passenger experience and every frontline decision was a need for identifying a better, safer way to do things, but with hospitality in mind. I didn’t know it yet, but the seeds of a career in health and safety had been planted.
I transitioned into various leadership roles in in-flight operations and management across several airlines. My first role was as a ground instructor, a role in which I taught flight attendants CPR skills, in-flight emergency and evacuation preparedness, hazmat protocol, self-defense, and other job-related duties.
My writing experience set me up for my next role as manager of in-flight standards, policy and compliance, a job in which I worked closely with the company’s safety department and successfully implemented the Federal Aviation Administration’s 14 CFR Part 5 – Safety Management Systems for the in-flight department. This was followed by leading the department’s risk assessments, root cause analyses and action plans.
I later landed a newly developed role at another airline as manager of in-flight health, safety and compliance, a position that offered me the chance to build something from the ground up. I developed several flight attendant safety programs that influenced injury rates and lost time while overseeing teams that implemented quality assurance and compliance initiatives across five crew bases.
From there, I took on increasingly strategic roles, including moving into resort safety at Vail Resorts. The airlines and ski industry have quite a bit in common: balancing employee and guest safety with customer service. As I said about the airline industry, safety and service go hand in hand. As the senior manager of health and safety in the Midwest region, my team established safety committees in all 10 resorts, created safety checklists for walkarounds and led emergency response tabletops. The region saw an impressive reduction in injury rates and an increase in “good catches.” I later transitioned to an enterprise role overseeing health and safety education and engagement.
I recently completed my Bachelor of Science in applied leadership with a minor in psychology, which supports my passion for human factors and how it relates to safety, recognizing patterns, influencing behavior and how to best communicate with the frontline employees.
I look forward to returning to the airline to continue working toward a safe and hospitable environment for our crews and passengers. Looking back, my career isn’t so much a straight path but a series of intersections – between hospitality and safety, between communication and compliance, between leadership and learning. Whether I’m launching a new safety management system, responding to a crisis or mentoring the next generation of safety professionals, I approach the work with curiosity, compassion and the belief that safety is the foundation of any successful operation. Health and safety may not have been my first destination, but it’s where I’ve found my purpose. And I couldn’t be more proud to be part of an industry that puts people first, every single day.
Beth Blair
St. Paul, MN
