If you’re a college football fan, there’s no better place to be this weekend and next than Jacksonville.
Dawn Southworth is able to take that concept a few steps farther after making Jacksonville her home about a month ago. Born and raised in a small town in northern Kentucky, she’s the new general manager of the Omni Hotel.
“I love SEC football. I’m a Southern girl at heart,” said Southworth.
A veteran of 22 years in the hospitality industry, working in hotels came as somewhat of a surprise.
Southworth enrolled in a small college in her home state intending to be a teacher. That changed when the school opened a lodge on campus for visiting parents that was run by Marriott Hotels.
Her first job was as a server in the dining room, but Southworth made an impression on the manager.
“He told me I should go into hospitality” and then the company helped her find the right school where she could study the business, Southworth said.
While attending Johnson & Wales University, she worked part-time at a hotel in the room service department and at the front desk.
“I got into it and never looked back,” said Southworth.
When she graduated in 1998, she went to work for Marriott International and soon was one of eight people in the U.S. selected for a management development program in New Orleans.
Southworth spent the first 19 years of her career in the food and beverage side of the business and changed jobs only when another hospitality corporation recruited her.
In addition to Marriott, she worked for Ritz-Carlton in Boston, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Qatar.
In 2005, she left food and beverage and went back to Marriott in management as director of operations at two properties.
About three years ago, she saw a job posting for director of operations at the 800-room Omni Nashville and decided it was time to go back to the South — and do something she hadn’t done up to that point.
“It was the first job I ever applied for,” Southworth said.
When the Omni’s previous general manager, Burnell Goldman, was transferred to the company’s hotel in Providence, R.I., Southworth was offered the promotion to the GM job in Jacksonville.
“Our company is all about growing the garden,” she said.
Southworth moved into her new office a few days before Hurricane Matthew arrived and has spent her time getting to know the hotel and its staff, some of whom have worked there since it opened in 1987.
“It’s like a boutique hotel with 354 rooms,” said Southworth.
She’s looking forward to this weekend, followed by next weekend when Navy plays Notre Dame at EverBank Field.
She also has become a Jacksonville Jaguars fan and when the NFL season is over, fans visiting for the TaxSlayer Bowl will roll into town.
“It’s going to be fun,” said Southworth.
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