Destiney Johnson, MBA

Success, for me, has always been rooted in a genuine love for the work. From a young age, I had a natural eye for marketing, not just making things look good, but understanding how the right message, in the right format, connects with the right person. That instinct took shape early, designing and editing photographs for friends and family, and later came to life professionally at Staples, where I worked in the print marketing department, producing booklets, pamphlets, banners, and posters of all sizes. Helping every business or idea that walked through the door find its voice gave me real joy, and looking back, that was my first lesson in translating a vision into something tangible and impactful. What I didn't realize then was that the same eye I used to craft a compelling poster is the same eye I now use to spot a compliance issue across 4,000 websites. Marketing taught me to think about the audience, the message, and the details, and data analytics is really just that, at a different scale and with different tools. I double majored in Management and Marketing at the University of West Georgia, graduating in 2020. I took one semester to breathe before returning for my MBA, which I completed in 2022. After three years of reflection, I made the decision to pursue my doctorate, which I began in October 2025, because growth, for me, is non-negotiable. In my current role at Greystar, I manage analytics and compliance across roughly 4,000 property websites. I also played a pivotal role in developing and piloting Python automation tools that helped the organization avoid approximately $1.7 million in vendor costs. But I have to be honest I didn't arrive at automation alone. My boss, Trevor Clark, and my colleague, Christian Myers, pushed me into the deep end, encouraging me to explore how automation and AI could help me work faster and smarter. I credit my curiosity in this space entirely to both of them. They didn't let me be intimidated by it, they made me embrace it, and that shift changed everything.

The best career advice I ever received wasn't delivered in a single moment; it was modeled through consistent encouragement. My boss, Trevor Clark, and my colleague, Christian Myers, pushed me to stop standing at the edge and just jump into automation and AI. Together, they saw how it could help me work faster and smarter before I could see it myself. Honestly, I was intimidated. AI felt new, unpredictable, and if I'm being transparent, threatening. The fear that it could replace me was real. But what I've come to understand is that AI isn't a rival, it's a partner. When you stop resisting it and start learning it, it becomes one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal for optimizing how you work and what you can deliver. Their push didn't just change how I work; it changed how I think about growth and discomfort. The willingness to dive into something unfamiliar, even when it feels overwhelming, is where real professional development lives. I credit my entire curiosity around automation to both of them, and it's a lesson I carry into everything I do now: don't let intimidation decide for you.

My advice is simple, but I mean it with everything in me: stay persistent.

There were moments in my journey where persistence was the only thing I had. I remember being in school, grinding, working part-time jobs, watching peers choose different paths that seemed easier or more immediately rewarding. There were times I wondered if I was missing out. When you're in the grind, head down and putting in the work, it can feel lonely, like everyone else has figured something out that you haven't yet. But that quiet, uncomfortable season of staying the course is exactly where character is built. That decision changed everything. At Staples, I wasn't just making posters and banners. I was showing up fully, giving my best to every customer, every project, every interaction, because I understood early that how you do small things is how you do all things. It was in that same spirit of showing up that I met someone printing booklets one afternoon who told me to apply for a marketing internship at Southwire. I got the job. Then, through a trusted family friend who owned a dental practice in multiple locations, I stepped into a marketing coordinator role, and not just any role. Fresh out of undergrad, I was reporting directly to the CEO. That experience taught me early that opportunity doesn't always arrive through the most conventional doors, and that the relationships closest to you can open rooms you never anticipated. Two pivotal chapters of my career were written not by a resume, but by a relationship that only existed because I was present, engaged, and persistent enough to still be in the room. You cannot plan for those moments. But you can position yourself for them. To every young woman entering this industry or any industry, I want you to know that the path rarely looks the way you imagined it. Data analytics was not the destination I had drawn up at the start. But every role, every skill, every late night studying, and every part-time shift added a layer that I use every single day. Nothing was wasted.

Be open. Be persistent. And trust what you feel called to do because purpose has a way of finding you when you refuse to quit.

The biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity in my field right now are the same thing: AI.

AI is transforming data analytics at a scale and speed that is impossible to ignore. When embraced thoughtfully, it is one of the most powerful partners you can have for optimizing and scaling work. But the keyword is thoughtfully. AI is only as good as the human reviewing its output, and that accountability cannot be outsourced. In my own work, I've experienced firsthand what that partnership looks like in practice. I've built automation tools that visit and scan thousands of property websites, checking for critical components like GA4 measurement IDs, our Greystar-owned GTM container, OneTrust compliance scripts, web vendors, property management systems, and more. What used to require manual, time-consuming audits now gives me a clear, at-a-glance view of what each property has, what it's missing, and where we need to act, before a vendor even has to ask. That is the power of AI and automation done right: it doesn't replace the analyst, it amplifies what the analyst can see and do. That said, the concerns are real and worth naming. "AI Slop," the growing flood of AI-generated content and output that is careless, inaccurate, and unchecked, is a legitimate threat to the integrity of our work. If analysts stop verifying their outputs, the data that organizations rely on to make decisions becomes unreliable. Accuracy is not optional. It is the foundation on which everything else is built. There is also the fear of job displacement, and I understand it; I felt it myself not long ago. But my perspective has shifted. The analysts who will thrive are not the ones who resist AI, but the ones who learn to work alongside it strategically. Use it to make your current role more efficient. Use the time it frees up to learn something new, expand your responsibilities, and grow into a bigger version of what you already are. AI should be creating capacity for you, not anxiety. And perhaps most critically, data privacy must remain at the center of every conversation. As automation and AI collect, process, and analyze more data than ever before, the responsibility to handle that data ethically and compliantly is enormous. It is not a backend concern. It is a leadership one. The analysts who will define this next era are the ones who can hold all of this at once: the innovation and the integrity, the speed and the scrutiny, the ambition and the accountability.

The values I hold closest are honesty, integrity, and humility. I believe they are inseparable.

Honesty, to me, is a professional superpower that most people underestimate. When you are honest about the scope of a project, honest about what is already on your plate, and honest about what you can realistically take on, you set yourself up to actually deliver. You create space to pull in the right resources, avoid missed deadlines, and build the kind of trust with your team that no technical skill can manufacture. Integrity follows naturally from that, because honesty without follow-through is just words. But the value I find myself returning to most, especially as I pursue my doctorate, is humility. Specifically, what I have come to understand as ontological humility, the practice of recognizing that your perspective is always one version of reality, never the complete picture. It means staying curious. It means welcoming other voices even when, especially when, they challenge what you think you already know. The moment you believe your view is the only view is the moment you stop growing. In a field like data analytics, where the landscape shifts constantly, that kind of rigidity is dangerous. Humility also means letting things align where they align. If something isn't working, I've learned to trust that there is something better positioned for you. What is meant for you will find you, but only if you stay open enough to receive it. That same openness extends to the people in my life. My family meets every other Sunday to check in with one another, sharing the highs, the struggles, the lessons of the week. In the grind of daily life, it is easy to forget that the people closest to you are one of your greatest resources. Those Sunday gatherings keep me grounded, accountable, and reminded of what truly matters. And when I need to reset, truly clear my head and come back stronger, I work out. There is something about physical discipline that mirrors everything I believe about professional growth: you show up even when you don't feel like it, you push past the resistance, and you come out the other side with more clarity than you walked in with. These values, honesty, integrity, humility, community, and the discipline to keep showing up, are not just things I believe in. They are how I move through the world every single day.