Across majors and class years, UNC alumni continue to reach new heights in their education. Aviation permeates many aspects of our lives; we all have a fascination or story that 涉及到一个机场. 在全国各地的旅游中心，皇冠app官方版下载校友努力创造 the best experiences for the millions of visitors who pass through every year.  

Heath Montgomery, ’05, vice president of communications and marketing at Dallas Fort Worth Airport (DFW) has spent the past decade growing in his career in aviation.  

Born and raised in Colorado, Montgomery enrolled at UNC to pursue his passions, earning 皇冠app安卓下载安装学和政治学学位. 他在学生报社工作， 镜子四年后，他成为了最后一年的编辑. 在他的大学生活中 he pursued 实习生ships and jobs at publications like the 丹佛邮报》 as their after-hours 实习生. After graduation, Montgomery went into political and community reporting at The Colorado Statesmen, the Columbine Courier and The Boulder Daily Camera. 

From his decade of experience in journalism, he transitioned into working in public relations using the skills he honed reporting in the field – including writing, people 将复杂的话题转化为可理解的交流的技巧. 这一举措 soon led him to his first role in aviation at Denver 国际 Airport (DEN) where 他爱上了这个行业. 

“It's the famous Richard Branson quote, ‘If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later.“这是 such real advice because at every step of my career I wasn't sure if I could do that 直到我答应了，并且相信我能做到.” 

——希斯·蒙哥马利

If you’re familiar with the myths and conspiracy theories circulating about the airport, like the supposed underground lizard people who live there, or the lore surrounding the 32-foot-tall sculpture of a rearing blue mustang that greets you as you drive to the airport, dubbed “Blucifer” by Coloradans and “Mustang” by its creator, you 至少部分要感谢蒙哥马利.  

“I ended up running the Denver 国际 Airport social media channels, so I really 几乎从零开始重建了那个程序. 那是推特刚刚起步的时候 as a public way of communicating with the press and media was just starting to use 那样的话 ... 我希望我给机场带来了很多乐趣 ... 而我没有 start the conspiracy theories; I started the idea of leaning into them as a marketing 机制，”蒙哥马利说.

Leaning into the conspiracies generated public intrigue and dialogue about DEN, leading Montgomery to be featured on the Discovery Channel, The 历史 Channel, national 皇冠app安卓下载安装，地方皇冠app安卓下载安装，甚至是头版皇冠app安卓下载安装 丹佛邮报》 皇冠app安卓下载安装DEN的阴谋. 

After his time at DEN, Montgomery moved to California for a career opportunity his wife was pursuing and settled himself in to work at a San Diego-based technology company. 然而，他发现自己错过了航空. 所以，当机会来临时 at Los Angeles 国际 Airport (LAX), he jumped at the chance to return to his 新的职业选择领域.

After four years with LAX, communicating about airport emergencies, construction projects, new routes and much more, Montgomery had another opportunity to elevate his career 在DFW担任副总裁.

如今，蒙哥马利在DFW工作，这是他在美国的第三家大型公司.S. 机场-刚刚结束 a year, overseeing 40 individuals across marketing, communications, community engagement, government relations and managing multimillion-dollar budgets for those departments. 从机场的品牌，包括今年的50号，他负责所有的事情th anniversary of the airport, as well as how DFW communicates with the media and public 在危机应对期间，以及更多. 考虑到DFW是其中之一，这是一个不小的壮举 the busiest and largest airports in the world, operating more like a small city complete with its own police, fire, security, operations, maintenance and other departments 它甚至有自己的邮政编码，比曼哈顿岛还大. 

Never imagining he would work in aviation, the advice he gives to those considering 这个领域很简单: 

“It's the famous Richard Branson quote, ‘If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later.“这是 such real advice because at every step of my career I wasn't sure if I could do that 直到我答应了，并且相信我能做到.” 

蒙哥马利职业道路上的每一步都出乎他的意料. 但他很开心 he took the sometimes scary and hard steps that allowed him to grow into the 行业 他现在是领袖了. 

Attending for degrees in Communication, and Recreation, Tourism and Hospitality, 舒尔茨 她在校园里过得很愉快. 她充分利用自己的经验，参加了 the National Student Exchange going to the University of New Orleans for a semester 她大三那年. 然后，通过全球交流课程，她去了巴塞罗那 夏天的三个星期. 尽管当时她对航空业并不感兴趣， 旅行是她在皇冠app官方版下载期间反复出现的主题. 

Starting her career as a food and beverage manager on riverboat cruises, 舒尔茨 then 转行到酒店工作. 在酒店业工作了几年之后，她 returned to Greeley to become an admissions counselor at UNC in the Denver area throughout 大流行的. 在母校工作了一段时间后，舒尔茨 changed industries into recruiting where she found a home working as a recruiter in 联合航空公司招聘飞行员. 

“I realize now, I have used my degree in every single field [I’ve worked in] and I've worked —funny enough — in three different areas of tourism: land, sea and air,” said 舒尔茨. 

What 舒尔茨 enjoys about recruiting is finding hires that are a perfect fit for United 以及那些认为曼联是他们的完美选择的人. 她的客户服务背景 roles made her a great fit because it demonstrated her strength in talking to people 并且扮演一个正面的角色. 去年，舒尔茨帮助雇佣了2300多名飞行员， 使她成为先前的 体验一项重要技能. 

舒尔茨 works with a lot of pilots, so she gets asked often if she ever thought of 成为一个. 我坐了一架探索号飞机，想看看她是否喜欢在空中 air and flying an aircraft, 舒尔茨 quickly realized that becoming a pilot was not 很有可能. 

 “这是动荡的，颠簸的，我只是没有度过美好的时光 ... 我知道 if I wanted to become a pilot, I would have to quit my job and do it full time in 为了让我的身体适应. 我想我还是继续雇佣飞行员吧。” 舒尔茨说. 

Both Montgomery and 舒尔茨 used their UNC degrees as valuable tools throughout their 职业生涯. 蒙哥马利是记者出身，舒尔茨是酒店业出身，他们的 different starts ultimately led them to different roles in the expansive aviation 行业. In the end, they both landed smoothly into a field they see themselves working 在长期. 

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