Manager of Employee Development
AvPORTS Airline Services
Westchester County Airport
She loves the smell of Jet A in the morning and has been at Westchester Airport for 37 years. A longer interview, but well worth the read, especially for those early in their careers looking for great career insights.
Meet Elizabeth Nelson
Andrew King: First, I would just like to ask, how did you get started in aviation?
Elizabeth Nelson: After I graduated from college, I worked in New York City in the advertising field. I realized I no longer wanted to work in NYC, so I was looking for a job when I had lunch with my sister at Westchester County Airport. Her boss, who was the tower chief at the time, he says, “You know, why don’t you get a part time job with Midway Airlines?” – which I’d never heard of.
I was looking for a job, but I actually found a career. I worked in all facets of what our company did at the time. I learned gates, security screening (pre TSA), I worked at the ticket counter. There was ground handling, which always worked in conjunction with Pan-Am World Services, which many years later became AvPORTS. We’re talking 1984 here.
Andrew King: Awesome.
Elizabeth Nelson: Very quickly I knew I wanted to do operations. Back then, operations was weight and balance – we did weight and balance manually, taking incoming range calls, flight arrivals and departures. So, I went off to Detroit to train for weight and balance.
Fun fact, at the time, it was Republic Airlines, which became Northwest, which became Delta.
Anyway, I was promoted to what we called an operations manager, or a shift manager, and that was overseeing all of the flights that we had. As an operations manager. I learned how to work outside on the ramp.
Again, I was promoted to an assistant project manager. I also did some work for Pan-Am World Services at the time. American had outsourced a lot of their cities, so I did what was called site surveys. I traveled to many, many different cities in the US doing what we called site surveys, to see if we could get the contracts.
Andrew King: Wow. That sounds adventurous.
Elizabeth: Now, I have some administrative people that work for me, and I do a lot of recruiting, I do a lot of coordination with the training. I still get involved. I have four safety in-training supervisors that report to me. So I work closely with them. I’m a very operational type of person. I love aviation.
Andrew: You mentioned your sister worked for the airport.
Elizabeth: There’s been a Nelson gal on Westchester County Field now for 49 years. Between my sister, and then myself. So it’s kind of like a legacy. I love the smell of Jet A in the morning (laughing). I love everything there is to do with an airplane. I’m so happy that I can look out my window and watch an airplane take off and land. And there’s nothing more exciting to me than watching airplanes take off.
Andrew: What’s it been like to work at Westchester for so long?
Elizabeth: I work with a very generous and knowledgeable group of people. I have worked with some of the same people for 30 years. Institutional knowledge is something that you cannot buy. At Westchester County, we have people that have been there for, you know, for a long time. We’ve all kind of grown up together, to some degree. Although, I must have started there when I was five, because I can’t possibly be that old. It’s just a great place to work. I love it. That kind of my story.
Andrew King: Let’s talk about women in aviation.
Elizabeth Nelson: Kemisha, she was the first female ramp supervisors that we’ve had in about 15 years. Throughout the entire time I’ve been at Westchester, working in the airline services portion, she was only the second that we’ve had.
You know, working on the ramp, a lot of people say, oh, that’s just a man’s job. And I do have a lot of people say, oh, do, do women do that? Yes, women do that. I’ve done that. It’s physical, of course, but right now we have four women working on the ramp.
Andrew King: Is gender a consideration when hiring or promoting?
Elizabeth Nelson: Not at all. Everybody works just as hard as the next person, which is what we look for. We look at, can this person do the job? Do we think this person have aptitude? You have to have situational awareness. It’s a very important part of the job. You’ve got to know where you are, what’s coming at you, what’s coming next.
Andrew King: What advice would you give someone joining the workforce today, or someone still young in their career who wants to better themselves?
Elizabeth Nelson: You know, first of all, you get in, and whatever position is available to you, you learn it. And from there, you ask for more things. Find somebody that can mentor you, and someone that can help you in whatever your goals are. Define your goals, and then just do it. You know, just do it. And the thing is, it’s not just a job. Aviation is a career. And if you really love airplanes, you’re going to have one right there in front of your face (laughs), you know, coming right at you. Parking an A3-20 can be a little intimidating sometimes, but you’ll learn it, and learn it the right way.
Andrew: What was your experience like as a woman in aviation?
Elizabeth Nelson: I’ve personally never felt that because I am a woman, that I was held back. I felt that I was always encouraged. And, you know, and a lot of that comes from some of my own perseverance, and things that my father instilled in me. “You know,” he’d say, “you can do anything you want, Elizabeth. You just have to put your mind to it.”
That’s my advice. Define what you want to do and where you want to go, and find somebody who could mentor you and help you along the way.
Andrew King: What would you say then to somebody who feels like they’re having trouble gaining traction or moving up?
Elizabeth Nelson: First, I think they should look inward. Try to define why that may be. Is it something that you are doing or not doing?
Second, is it something within the corporation or the company that you’re working for? And if that’s what it is, then you need to seek out either your supervisor or your manager or your employee development person, whomever you feel comfortable with in that organization and say, “Hey, you know these are my goals. This is what I’m interested in doing, and I don’t think I’m getting what I need to get.”
We need the individuals that want to stay in their current role, and be steady, and be those senior folks, and do the work that needs to be done. But we also need somebody who’s new to say “hey, I really want to move up. I want to learn whatever I can learn. And, go from there.”
Back to Kemisha, who’s a great example. She came into the company and has said on many occasions, “I want your job. I want your job. I want your job.” Whoever she’s pointing at at the time (laughing).
We knew that we had somebody who was interested in doing things. She did everything she needed to do to gain all of the advanced qualifications. She persevered. She knew what she wanted. Great credit to her. Great credit. I’m the one who nominated her (laughs).
Andrew King: That’s so cool.
Elizabeth Nelson: Then she went for the ramp supervisor position on more than one occasion. And you know, you don’t always get the thing you want the first time. Sometimes, it takes a little bit longer, because we look at qualifications. We look at time with the company. We look at supervisor and management experience. So, you know, it was her time. And, she did it quite quickly, I have to say.
Andrew King: Wow.
Elizabeth Nelson: She has a lot of responsibility. It’s a big job. She never held back. And that’s the thing, no holding back. Do what you’re interested in doing. If for some reason you’re not getting satisfaction, you look elsewhere. But you have to be happy doing what you’re doing.
Andrew King: That’s such great insight. You mentioned mentoring, what is a mentor?
Elizabeth Nelson: A mentor is somebody that you can go to. You can seek advice from them. They can help you down whatever path you’re interested in. And not just a mentor but a go to person. Even someone you can call and say, “I’m not having a great day, and I don’t think I’m, I’m learning this fast enough or that. You know, how can, how can I do better?” Someone that you trust, and someone who has the knowledge and enthusiasm to help you.
Andrew King: How does one find a mentor?
Elizabeth Nelson: I think that’s something that you, as the individual, who is looking for somebody to help you with your path, to seek that person out, and have conversations with them. Find out if this is the right fit for you. It could be a coworker that’s been working there for a longer period of time. It could be a supervisor. It could be one of our ramp supervisors or training supervisors, safety and training supervisors. It could be a ramp manager. It could be me. It could be our airline services manager. It could be a lot of different people. It could be somebody that doesn’t even actually work at our site. But has knowledge.
I think the individual has to take those steps. Nobody’s going to come and walk up to you and say, “Hey, you want me to be your mentor?” That’s not how it works. You have to seek out to get to your goals.
Andrew: Thank you, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Thank you.