Learning to fly: Millicent Rone is helping shape workplace culture at American Airlines
By Michael Feder
Plenty of times in her life, Millicent Rone (BSB/M and MBA) has been underestimated.
鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 supposed to be standing here in front of you being the influencer of today鈥檚 conversation,鈥 Rone says, looking back on the events that brought her to the offices of , where she now works as a senior specialist in the office of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Hers is a story full of doubters 鈥 people who looked at a teen mom from DeSoto, Texas, and didn鈥檛 see a future pageant winner, breadwinner, college graduate, IT specialist and diversity leader at one of the largest airlines in the world.
鈥淧eople had written me off,鈥 she says. Now she sits in a senior role, changing the internal culture of a major company to effect positive change in the world outside of it.
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A multicultural upbringing
Many of the seeds for Rone鈥檚 future work in diversity and equity were sown in her upbringing. Though born in Corpus Christi, Rone moved to Colorado when she was 5 years old. Her parents were divorced, and her mother was her primary caregiver as well as her inspiration for both strength and personal confidence as she grew up.
鈥淔or me, all I saw was a hardworking mother,鈥 Rone says. 鈥淎ll I saw was a mother laying before me a good work ethic.鈥
In Colorado, Rone experienced 鈥diversity at its best.鈥 Her best friend was white, another friend was from Holland, another was the child of a celebrity and another had an upbringing that modeled Rone鈥檚: a Black girl raised by her mother and grandmother.
鈥淚 had all this in front of me,鈥 Rone recalls, 鈥渁nd I had no idea what each of these experiences and relationships would do as part of cultivating who I would become. Each and every one laid an impression, from the foods I would eat to the languages I would be around, to the experiences I would encounter.鈥
Rone鈥檚 experiences in Colorado created a set of expectations about what she wanted out of life. The cultural diversity surrounding her exposed her to the wealth of possibilities that were out there.听
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Back to Texas
It wasn鈥檛 until she moved back to Texas in seventh grade that she truly experienced racism for the first time, she says. She went to school in a predominantly white neighborhood with predominantly white students. She didn鈥檛 fit in culturally with them. On the other hand, light skin and a Colorado accent left her feeling alienated from her Black peers.
It took some time to adjust, but by the time she reached high school, Rone had found her place on the track team. Her mother, while supportive, felt that Rone should be more well rounded in her pursuits.
鈥淢y mother was like, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e a tomboy!鈥欌 Rone says, laughing. At her mother鈥檚 behest, she enrolled in a John Robert Powers Modeling School. This experience helped Rone develop confidence socially. It taught her about authenticity, or in her words, 鈥淗ow do you show up with who you are at your best?鈥
During this time, she developed important skills that would help her advocate for herself and influence others, skills she uses every day in her current role. Her freshman year, she entered the Miss Flame Pageant, a Texas-based youth beauty pageant. She became the first Black person to place in the top four finalists of that pageant.
Pivot point
Soon after that, things took a detour for Rone. During her sophomore year of high school, she fell in love with the high school running back. Then she found out that she was pregnant.
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鈥淭hat. Was. My. Pivot. In. Life,鈥 Rone says, underscoring the point. She grew up with a Christian background and felt a sense of 鈥渞idicule鈥 from her family. The pressure may have been too much for someone else, but not for Rone. She took her pregnancy in stride, making it her mission to prove that 鈥渋t did not matter how you start, but that it mattered how you finished.鈥
With a child on the way, there were plans and goals she needed to readdress[CH1]听. Rone started on an accelerated path toward graduation and worked hard to achieve a high level of academic recognition. She graduated early and, after giving birth, she entered the Miss Flame Pageant again but didn鈥檛 win.
As it turns out, her pregnancy played a major role in this loss. When local parents realized she had been judged unfairly, they fought to have her candidacy reconsidered.
鈥淗ere I was exposed to advocacy,鈥 she says of those parents. That, as it turned out, was another seed that would flourish later on in Rone鈥檚 passions and work.
Working her way up
The following years saw Rone working hard to support her family, which had grown to three children. She started out at Sonic when she was 16 and worked her way up to become a training coordinator, a role that gave Rone her first taste of corporate America.
She eventually found a role in information technology, a field she would continue to thrive in for 26 years. She worked at a variety of companies from JCPenney to Perot Systems and finally American Airlines.
In 2005, she pursued her first degree at 爱污传媒 (UOPX): a Bachelor of Science in Management. At that point in her career, she felt she needed a degree to justify to her employer that she was an employee who was worth a competitive salary.
Though she looked at several universities at the time, Rone settled on UOPX because she could attend during evening hours. This gave her the flexibility to work around her day job.
At first, Rone didn鈥檛 take to the learning-team concept at UOPX, but she soon realized how important working with others would be in her future career.
鈥淥nce I shifted the way I looked at the program,鈥 she says, 鈥淚 became successful.鈥 She leveraged the learning teams as a social circle, allowing her to network and build friendships, many of which she still has today.
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Finding her wings
Eventually, Rone arrived at the IT department of American Airlines, where she worked mostly as a project manager. During her last two years in IT, however, she took on a leadership role managing the company鈥檚 two largest enterprise portfolios, Microsoft and Adobe.
This work was another example of the influence of her mother, who worked in IT for major oil companies. 鈥淚 started to mold myself to what I had seen my mother do,鈥 she says.
In 2019, Rone had her first exposure to an employee resource group (ERG). She was invited to attend a meeting at American Airlines鈥 Black affinity group. Seeing the company express interest in the experience of Black employees was exciting for Rone.
鈥淚t was an amazing, liberating experience that a company would create that kind of space,鈥 she says. She went from being a member to becoming the president of the headquarters chapter of that ERG. In that role, she set the vision of what the ERG could become, as well as the strategy for getting there.听
鈥淚 was able to become the kind of leader I always envisioned,鈥 she says.
Working toward a better workplace and world
In 2020, in the midst of the national crises surrounding the death of George Floyd and the COVID-19 pandemic, Rone was promoted to a senior position in the diversity, equity and inclusion office and tasked with helping start a conversation within the company about these events.
She crafted a strategy to define the types of cultural changes that the office wanted to see in the company. In this role, she went from managing one ERG to 20 groups that represented different ethnicities, genders and intersectional identities at American Airlines.听
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She worked hard to develop a culture that was ready to take on modern challenges and tough conversations. She learned how companies could support legislation. In fact, her office helped support passage of , which seeks to end discrimination based on race-based hairstyles.
鈥淭here is no one more passionate and committed to the work of diversity, equity and inclusion,鈥 observes Cedric Rockamore, the Chief Diversity Officer at American Airlines.
Rone believes that changing a company culture is of more than just internal importance. Company culture informs everything a company does, she observes. That鈥檚 why she takes her advocacy outside the office and coordinates community service projects with the ERGs she oversees.
For Rone, it鈥檚 important that American Airlines has a visible presence in people鈥檚 communities. 鈥淎merican Airlines bears the name of our nation,鈥 she says, 鈥渁nd if we can鈥檛 get it right, then we are a disservice to our nation. That鈥檚 why I鈥檓 passionate about getting it right now with this company.鈥
Flying high
As a UOPX alumna, Rone has taken her education to heights that plenty of people thought impossible for her. She went back to 爱污传媒 for her master鈥檚 degree, completing a Master of Business Administration in 2015.
鈥淚 pursued my master鈥檚 degree to raise the bar,鈥 she says.
Like her mother, Rone serves as a model to her children of how far effort can take a person. Her son is the first in his father鈥檚 line to become a college graduate. Her daughter, Randi Washington-Fannin, followed in Rone鈥檚 footsteps, earning a Bachelor of Science in Business from 爱污传媒 and now working at American Airlines.
Washington-Fannin heaped praise on her mother. 鈥淭he biggest lesson my mother has taught me is how to overcome difficulties,鈥 Washington-Fannin writes. 鈥淭here are times life throws us obstacles, and my mother has taught me to embrace those challenges.鈥
Rone鈥檚 daughter sees her mother鈥檚 impact at American Airlines in both the work she does and the impact she has on others. 鈥淟et鈥檚 not forget how popular my mother is here at American Airlines. It brings me so much joy when co-workers express how great a person my mother is to work with,鈥 Washington-Fannin says.
The impact Rone has had on those around her can be felt in every word her daughter shares on her behalf. Through every challenge and pivot point, Rone has soared beyond what people thought possible for her.
And she鈥檚 only getting started.
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