Dahnya Rogers

I attribute my success to an unwavering drive to succeed and excel at whatever I'm doing. Throughout my career, I've consistently pushed myself to take on more, constantly asking my managers for additional projects and challenges. I'm a speedy worker who thrives on creating systems and organizing processes - whether it was building training programs in my high school culinary program that are still used today, or developing the entire maintenance and repair program for GW's dining services from scratch. I hold myself to a level of excellence that drives everything I do, and I'm never satisfied with just maintaining the status quo. Even when I've hit growth ceilings in various roles, instead of accepting limitations, I've sought out ways to broaden my skills and increase what I bring to the table. That determination led me to pursue my master's degree to ensure I could continue growing and making an impact in improving workplace culture and training development within the food service industry.

The most impactful advice I received was on the first day of grad school: if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. This phrase has fundamentally shaped how I approach my career and professional development. It reinforced what I've learned throughout my journey - the importance of finding your people, surrounding yourself with individuals you can learn from who will be in your corner. I was also profoundly influenced by Cassandra Van Auken, who served as the People Operations Manager at Union Square Hospitality Group. She started as a server in the restaurant group, which made her incredibly effective in her HR role because she could truly empathize with the issues we faced. Cassandra taught me so much about the importance of building sturdy professional relationships with your colleagues in the workplace. She showed me that these relationships allow for so much more growth and create such higher impact. Having that boots-on-the-ground support - someone who could help you navigate feedback, improve your performance, and build human connections - completely shaped my motivation to go into training and development and really build the human connection within food service cultures.

The first thing that comes to mind is: find your people. Find people who are going to be in your corner that you can learn from. One of the most impactful things I heard on the first day of grad school was that if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. Surround yourself with people who are going to push you, uplift you, and help you continue expanding your own growth. You need people you can absorb information from to keep moving up that path. Build a strong, supportive network of people who build you up and help support your career journey. Always continue to learn and be open to feedback - absorb information that's going to empower you and help you thrive and reach your goals. The importance of building sturdy professional relationships in your workplace cannot be overstated, because those relationships allow for so much more growth and create such higher impact in your career.

One of the biggest challenges in my field is navigating limited growth pathways, the strain of balancing multiple responsibilities, and the lasting operational disruptions caused by COVID, while the greatest opportunities lie in strengthening workplace culture, investing in training, and building systems and data programs that enable sustainable growth and smarter decision-making.

The values most important to me are building genuine human connections, fostering strong professional relationships, holding my work to high standards of excellence, and committing to continuous learning.