LAKELAND, Fla. — A local woman is breaking barriers and soaring to new heights in the aviation industry.
Women make up less than 20% of the workforce in aviation, Tori Cox is doing her part to change that as operations manager at Amazon's Air Hub in Lakeland.
But more than that: she's hoping to connect, inspire and empower other women to follow their dreams and realize the sky's the limit.
"I knew when I was in school that I didn't want to work behind a desk and I wanted to work with people," she said. "....when I saw the opportunity open for Amazon, I thought this was the perfect fit."
Cox started working at the Amazon Air Hub in Lakeland two and a half years ago. As an operations manager, she oversees a team that operates 16 flights daily, unloading and loading cargo onto planes. She's in charge of 3 area managers and over a hundred employees on the team, as well as hundreds of thousands of packages a day going in and out of this sorting facility.
"My day initially starts with planning. I look at which flights are coming in, if there are any potential delays. What our headcount is going to look like as far as what our team is that day. Then it continues into the execution phase of processing the amount of packages and ultimately meeting the Amazon customer promise that we committed to that day," she said.
While Tori said her team has always been supportive, she did see a need for more representation of women in the industry. So, in 2022, she started a local chapter of Amazon's Women at Air group.
"Women at Air is a group that provides a platform to connect, develop and inspire women and provides programs that empower them to pursue their goals," Cox said.
The group has grown so much in the last couple of years, that every air site in the Amazon air network now has a chapter.
"It's a game changer," she said "Women at Air has truly provided me with a community that has enabled me to pursue my goals personally and professionally."
Recently, Tori hosted the first-ever Women at Air summit, with more than 50 women from Amazon Air Hubs across the country doing activities and holding discussions to help promote female leadership and representation in the company. The Lakeland group also teams up with local organizations to get out in the community to help others and show them that anything is possible.
"My message to any women or young girls watching this is there's a space for you in aviation. There's a space for you in logistics. There's a space for you wherever you want to be," Cox said.
Tori says she wants to continue pursuing her career at Amazon, but in her free time, she is training to get her private pilot license.
