Valerie Ferguson might never have been a hotelier if her vision weren't so poor.  That's the reason, she was told by an officer at the Reserved Officer Training  Corp. unit on her college campus, she could never become the pilot she wanted to  be. 

Or if her legs weren't too short. An avid ballet-student for 20 years who  dreamed of becoming a professional dancer someday, but that too, was not to  become a reality. 

"I changed goals so many times," Ferguson said. "I never felt limited as a woman  or as a person of color as to what I could become." 

What she became was a hotelier and the highest-ranking elected officer of the  national association that represents hoteliers. While Ferguson is satisfied with  her accolades, she knows there is much more to accomplish. That's not only in  her professional career, but in her a career as a human being who is dedicated  to assisting those who need help. 

The current chairman (titles such as chairperson, chairwoman or chair, Ferguson  can do without) of the American Hotel & Motel Assn. and regional vice president  of Loews Hotels gives the credit to her father, Sam. 

"The role of a father is so important, especially for a daughter," she said. "My  father and I had a great relationship in which he supported me, but in which he  never put any images in front of me about what I should shoot for."  Ferguson credits the fact that her father was often willing to take his daughter  to work with him, a fact that she said enhanced her aspirations and helped her  prepare for her own career. As a research scientist, educator and eventually a  college president, Sam Ferguson made sure his daughter had the tools and  inspiration to succeed. The rest was up to her, but Valerie Ferguson still  wasn't positive of what was to be her career path.  The quality time spent with her father is what Ferguson said makes their  relationship so special, but there was a slight source of embarrassment with  which the teen had to deal. 

For her first year of college, Ferguson went to a small school in California at  which her dad was the chairman of the Life Sciences department. It turned out to  be a mixed blessing. 

"On campus, I was known as Sam's daughter, and I wanted to break away from  that," she said. "I wanted to be a lawyer, so I applied to the University of San  Francisco."  She earned an undergraduate degree in government as part of the pre-law  curriculum, but was having second thoughts about the legal profession. 

"I saw too many bartenders and cab drivers with law degrees," Ferguson said.  So she took a job as a counselor in a juvenile-detention facility, but  eventually decided to leave California. Ferguson chose Atlanta, but it took a  while to grow on her. 

"I didn't understand the accents, there was no beach and everything was fried,"  she said.  She stuck it out, eventually taking a night auditor's job at the Hyatt Regency  in Atlanta. Ferguson found out that the hotel industry intrigued her and she  learned to like okra. 

"I absolutely loved working in a hotel; every day was different, every day was a  challenge," Ferguson said. "It was a great business to be in because I learned  that what I gave was coming back to me."  Still, there were barriers. Ferguson discovered that skin color and gender can  become issues. 

"If you have some luck, make the most of your opportunities and work hard,  people will recognize that, but that doesn't always happen, particularly for  people of color," she said. "I was raw in my approach to the business world, but  I soon came to realize that it takes more than working hard. To succeed, a  person must be able to proclaim his or her goals." 

Ferguson has taken time at every hotel in which she has been in a management  position to get to know her staff members on a personal level. She meets with  them to discuss their career goals and she finds that women and other minorities  too often are limiting in what they say they want to achieve, and are reluctant  to state their goals. 

"Even to another woman, a woman is really uncomfortable saying 'I want to be  general manager' or 'I want to be president of this company,'" Ferguson said. 

"Men are much more at ease making that type of proclamation."  Ferguson said women are often programmed to keep plugging away, which often  leads to frustration and an exit from a job. She said they need to set strong  goals and to ask for advancement.  That's what Ferguson has always done, and in a working career that is not yet  three decades old, she has racked up an impressive resumé. Prior to the  successful effort by Jonathan Tisch to have Ferguson oversee his company's new  Philadelphia hotel as well as be one of his regional vice presidents, Ferguson  was most recently g.m. at Ritz-Carlton Atlanta. Before that she held management  positions for Hyatt in Atlanta, Chicago and Flint, Mich. 

Changing jobs during her AH&MA chairmanship might have seemed like a lot to take  on, but the enthusiastic, hard-working and energetic Ferguson scoffs at the  notion. 

"It was a great offer," she said. "Having known Jonathan Tisch [since 1994] from  our involvement as AH&MA officers, I have tremendous admiration and respect for  his commitment to the industry and to Loews Hotels. 

"Loews is not only one of the most dynamic hotel chains in the country, but it  has long had a reputation as a company that aggressively promotes and advances  women," Ferguson added. "Joining Loews during [its expansion campaign] is the  perfect complement to my desire to reach out to future generations of  hoteliers." 

Even with the job change, Ferguson has kept to a busy schedule that has her  handling speaking engagements across the country, as well as working on AH&MA  business. Her term in office has been an effort to promote the lodging industry  as a career, improve education, and to keep speaking up on the behalf of blacks  and women as they seek more-important roles in the U.S. hotel industry. 

Does she  think that she has given either group short shrift to concentrate on the other? "I've tried to work hard for both, because women and people of color too often  need that assistance," Ferguson said. She concedes that race is the bigger  concern, because, Ferguson said, it is still a society that doesn't deal well  with blacks. It is the area in which she personally has encountered the majority  of her trials. Racial epithets were more common than sexist ones as Ferguson  worked on her career.  She contends that all of those types of problems can best be battled through  education. It can be used to better the circumstances of many, as well as teach  those who remain stuck in the morass of bias. 

"If we can send people to the moon, we should be able to educate our children  properly," Ferguson said. "We need to spend the time and the money to be sure  that every American child-particularly those in urban and outlying rural areas-  gets a quality education." 

Ferguson loves the hotel industry, but worries that it is not doing every thing  it can to promote equality and opportunity. A new breed of ownership, that is  not hospitality oriented, also has her concerned. 

"What they must remember is this is the hospitality industry; it's what I  believe to be the American dream," Ferguson said. "It's about people and their  families, and what your employees are able to do with their lives when they are  not at work. It's very much about education and training and making your  employees a truly important part of your organization. It's not numbers only."  Ferguson said hotels-no matter who the owners are-must be prepared to always  exceed customer expectations and show concern for their employees and the  communities in which they operate. 

"If we ensure that our employees always have an opportunity to succeed, and we  are as concerned about them as we are our shareholders, we, our companies and  our industry will be leaving an excellent legacy," Ferguson said.  Seems like Valerie's father has reason to be proud.