Dean Mejia of UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management transitioned to academia after a successful career in the industry. Driven by a desire to address gaps in industry knowledge, she shares insights from her journey and is committed to ensuring the college remains a leader in hospitality education.
From Industry to Academia: Getting to Know the Inspiring Dean Mejia of UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management.
Dean Mejia’s background reveals an inspiring career journey. Recently appointed as the permanent Dean of Rosen College of Hospitality Management in June 2024, Dean Mejia leveraged her extensive industry experience into a career in academia.
Her career in academia branched from her first career in the hospitality industry.
Her initial career began in 1983-84 as a cook in senior living, a role she undertook to fund her college education as she pursued a degree in Biochemistry at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. Shortly thereafter, she shifted her focus to culinary arts and moved to New York to attend the Culinary Institute of America. After completing their 2-year program and an internship, she returned to California and advanced within the Food & Beverage Operations sector in hotel industry roles. She even had the opportunity to move to Singapore for a year, where she took a prominent role as the opening chef for Blue, a restaurant and jazz club at the Shangri-La Hotel.
The demanding nature of the hospitality industry eventually led her to reconsider her career path. “Back then, we worked 12-hour days, 6-7 days a week,” she shares. “So, I decided to take a break.” She left to marry and start a family, only to realize her deep-seated passion for the industry. This led her to pursue an online master’s degree in hospitality from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. During her studies, she experienced numerous "aha" moments that highlighted gaps in her industry knowledge and inspired her to consider academia. This period of reflection also made her question why such knowledge was not more widely available to frontline and supervisory employees in the industry.
Dean Mejia began her teaching career at Le Cordon Bleu in Dallas, TX, where she found a rewarding balance between family life and professional involvement. This experience ignited her passion for teaching, which she later pursued at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX while earning a PhD in Hospitality Management. She shares that this is when she fell in love with teaching. Although she did train and mentor many while in the industry, being able to influence real change through the formal environment of the classroom really became her calling.
In 2013, she joined the University of Central Florida (UCF) as a research faculty member and Assistant Professor in the Department of Food Service, Lodging & Management. Her roles included teaching courses on Restaurant Operations, Facilities Management, Culture & Cuisine, and Foodservice Supply Chain. In 2019, she served as Interim Chair of the Department of Food Service & Lodging, a position she held for three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She was appointed Interim Dean in October 2023 and, after a national search, officially became the permanent Dean in June 2024.
How UCF influenced her to move to Florida.
Dean Mejia’s move to Florida was influenced by her dissertation research on the online adaptation of the hospitality and services industries and a compelling interview with Dr.Deborah Breiter at UCF.
“The industry embeddedness into Rosen College is unparalleled. There is no other place in the world like this. The more industry people I met, the more I saw how students were supported with scholarships and incredible jobs. Students come here from all over the United States because of that. I see the excitement for why they want to come here, and it makes me more committed to figure out how to get more scholarships for them and how to find better pathways for other students to come here. It also makes me excited about all the things we can do here at the college.” Her admiration for UCF’s approach to online learning and the unique industry integration at Rosen College led her to seize an opportunity to join the institution.
Career challenges when shifting from industry to academia.
Transitioning from industry to academia presented challenges. Dean Mejia notes that while industry roles demand immediate results, academia requires creating a supportive environment where mistakes are part of the learning process. This shift emphasized the need for a classroom culture that fosters trust and encourages learning from errors. “There needs to be a permission structure for mistakes, errors, [and] failures. Professors welcome mistakes and influence a desire for the students to learn from them—no matter where they are in their own learning journey.
Rewarding achievements and how changing her mindset shaped her career.
Throughout her career, Dean Mejia has found profound satisfaction in her ability to create change. “You can affect so much change in education,” she explains. “Not only can you directly influence students, but you also witness the ripple effect as they go on to create change themselves."
She attributes pivotal career moments to a willingness to take risks and adapt her mindset, influenced by the book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers, Ph.D. “I’m a big risk-taker. If something’s a little bit scary, I’ll do it,” she says. Dean Mejia explains further how the book influenced her. “For most of my 20s and 30s, I struggled with acute anxiety,” she says. “I knew I was going to feel it—feel anxious, feel nervous—but I decided I’m just going to do it anyway."
Any advice for those aspiring to change or follow a similar career path?
For those aspiring to enter the hospitality industry, Dean Mejia advises exploring the sector’s diverse opportunities even beyond traditional roles, including marketing, human resources, and events, to name a few.
She also highlights the growing job prospects in Central Florida and the potential for careers in academia. Students can pursue degrees in lodging and restaurant management, hospitality management, entertainment and events management, or theme park and attraction management. For those already in the industry, there are also opportunities to explore instructor and faculty positions—several of which are currently available at UCF Rosen College.
Sharing her vision for the future of UCF Rosen College
One thing that COVID has shown us is that we must think about the future of teaching and learning in higher education. During the pandemic, a lot of people in the industry were furloughed or lost their jobs. As more time passes, and the economy starts to find its new normal, we can see a returning shift--just as Dean Mejia felt called back to the industry. “What we’re seeing, is that slowly, people are coming back to hospitality and tourism because they miss people! People do this work because they like people.”
Dean Mejia also shares that UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management is planning to undergo a multi-million dollar renovation within the next few years to embrace more in-person, face-to-face environments. She shares that this is a way to stay aligned with President Cartwright’s vision for UCF to be a technology and engineering metropolitan university. Dean Mejia is committed to innovating and exceeding expectations, ensuring the college remains a leader in hospitality education well into the future.
