Jessie Allen manages the marketing, communications and external relations department at the Tucson Airport Authority (TAA) with a robust focus on internal and external relations, including board, councils, community leaders and stakeholders, airlines, tenants, users, passengers, customers and the TAA team.
“I absolutely love that not one day is the same. I get the opportunity to go from the typical business functions of partnering with local organizations on marketing agreements to being hands-on in the terminal and helping a passenger find their gate or a family reunite,” said Allen. “I’ve had the opportunity to work with multi-million-dollar project teams and in the process have fallen in love with communication planning for capital improvement projects. I appreciate the opportunity to dive into so many different aspects from crisis communications and internal communication efforts to air service event planning and legislative affairs. I also get to work closely with executive leadership, and it’s a privilege to work for and with some of the brightest minds in the industry.”
Looking to the future, she said she’d like to see airports uniting in their efforts to innovate in terms of not just customer experience but also sustainability.
“Promoting diversity and inclusion is easy to talk about but is a long-term journey for organizations. In terms of sustainability, there’s something every airport can do from recycling programs to sustainability studies for evaluating EV charging, alternate fueling for airport fleets, etc.,” she said.
Allen has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona and a master’s degree from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She also presently serves on ACI’s MarCom Committee.
