Maya Dukes’ path keeps leading her back to Georgia State’s Robinson College of Business. To appease her parents, who urged her to take a traditional route, Dukes started at Georgia State as an undergraduate accounting major. She loved it but felt drawn to the arts, and left to pursue graphic design at the Art Institute of Atlanta.
Upon graduating, she had to choose a direction: agency or corporate. Seeking stability due to her “Capricorn-ness,” Dukes opted for the less volatile corporate world, landing a dream job at Macy’s she describes as “like the ‘Devil Wears Prada’ without the Miranda Priestly trauma.” Pretty soon, she noticed how the marketing team strategized, analyzed their successes, and pinpointed opportunities for growth.
“I realized that to move ahead or advance in my career, I would have to understand what was being asked of me, the targets I was aiming for, and how my work impacted the bottom line,” Dukes said.
Dukes’ desire to learn “the science behind the art” brought her back to Robinson, where she enrolled in the M.S. in Marketing program.
“It was a no-brainer. I could go to school in the city I love and grew up in,” she said. “I was living life and working, and Robinson made it convenient to get a quality education without having to move out of state or do anything crazy.”
Dukes believes getting Robinson’s “stamp of approval” helped her land her current position as creative director at Delta Air Lines. As an art school student, Dukes and her friends longed to work for “cool brands” like Nike, the Coca-Cola Company, and the major airline. She’d applied for positions at Delta over the years, but in 2021, just as Dukes was wrapping up her master’s, the company sought her out. Her first major task was to build and scale Window Seat, Delta’s in-house creative agency.
“I assessed our capabilities and determined what creative efforts would bring the brand to life,” she said.
Since Dukes joined Delta, Window Seat has grown from just over a dozen people to a staff of 68. The team has won In-House Agency Forum’s In-House Agency of the Year Award, several Shorty Awards, and industry recognition for its internal communications and social media campaigns.
“Winning In-House Agency of the Year was a defining moment for our team,” Dukes said. “Stakeholders could see our progress and rewarded us with more work.”
After receiving her master’s degree, Dukes returned to Robinson again as an adjunct professor teaching a course on systematic creativity.
“I’m teaching, but I’m also learning. I get to tweak and define the curriculum based on student feedback,” she said. “It’s mostly lecture- and discussion-based, so I’m gaining an inside look at Generation Z, which is really important as a marketer,” she says.
Despite the university’s accolades and rankings, Dukes thinks enough people don’t understand the power of a Georgia State degree.
“You can get a quality education without going broke. It’s all about how you apply your knowledge, the people you meet, and the connections you keep,” she said. “Georgia State doesn’t get enough credit.”