Latoya Gibbs, an affiliate professor in SOU’s Sociology and Anthropology (SOAN) department, recently shared her findings on competency-based training at The World Aviation Training Summit (WATS) in Orlando, Florida.

WATS is billed as the world’s largest gathering of aviation training professionals who serve airlines, regulators, training providers and the training industry.

Gibbs’ presentation, “Competency-Based Training: Connecting the Dots to Passenger Satisfaction,” was part of the WATS Cabin Crew Training Conference – one of four separate conferences at the training summit.

The talk was based on Gibbs’ research on the effect of competency-based training on flight attendants’ performance and, ultimately, passengers’ satisfaction. She trained a group of 109 flight attendants in four competences: managing stress, dealing with conflict situations, displaying human relations skills and delivering quality customer service. The research included pre- and post-training measures of the flight attendants’ performance and customer satisfaction.

Gibbs has worked as a flight attendant and a cabin crew training instructor, and                                   earned her doctorate in hospitality industry administration from Oklahoma State University. Her current research interests include competency-based training in aviation and hospitality education.

She focuses on human capital as a sustainable competitive advantage through performance and retention. She has published in the “Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research” and the “Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Education,” and has presented at various conferences.

Gibbs, who joined SOU’s Sociology and Anthropology Department last year, received her bachelor’s degree from Florida International University and her master’s degree from the University of the West Indies.

She spent 17 years in the aviation industry, serving first as a flight attendant for Air Jamaica and later as a cabin crew instructor for Caribbean Airlines.