Diana’s story begins on the other side of the world from Atlanta in Romania. Her family moved to the U.S. when she was 6. After a short stint in Washington DC, they settled in her “hometown” of Nashville, TN. This experience at a young age has had a formative and lasting impact on Diana. She attributes her adaptability to this time, and how she was inspired by the resilience shown by her parents adapting and assimilating to a new country after sacrificing everything to provide a better future for her.

For the last 15 years, Diana has worked in some pretty incredible roles from sales to operations leadership and more. Her experience in our industry and others have given her a distinct advantage as she joined our team, but it was her grit and adaptability that got her promoted.  

Diana was among the very first team members we hired in Atlanta and has been with us since day one. She started off as an “Experience Lead” and grew herself into the role of "Reservation & Operations Specialist". Diana has been such an important part of our team and culture and has helped to shape much of the Experience Room processes as she constantly assessed ways to align the team through building systems.  

Any time Diana was asked to help participate in new program development and other administrative support she exceeded expectations. She required very little hand holding and almost never required follow up when asked to help with anything by the leadership team. Her instincts to solve problems are genuinely impressive.  

Diana’s curiosity along with her action muscle allowed her to see and be part of many other areas of the business from her administrative duties to event booking, sales building ideas and most significantly her oversight of the Y3S reservation program which makes up a huge part of our guest count every week.  

Diana has taken an amazing Kaizen approach to anything she works on. She takes full ownership for anything assigned and is constantly looking for ways to learn from and improve whatever she’s overseeing.

If you’ve ever called Y3S, you’ve likely spoken to Diana on the phone as she’s spent countless hours fielding phone calls and learning from every question and working with the team to improve the information we provide to improve the guests ability to get good information.  

Diana has had her hands in so many supportive admin including invoices, inventory management and her recent project of miscellaneous inventory tracking. Her support spans every department in the business and has helped our leadership team stay focused on their top priorities knowing that Diana has their backs.  

Most recently, Diana's journey took a step forward as she evolved into the role of "Special Events + VIP Experience Leader", responsible for driving the planning, execution and success 0f holidays and events that are key to making memories for guest.  In her role, she also oversees the in-store Neighbors Membership program and the hosting and flow of visits from VIP guests.  This role is critical to delivering on our purpose of building community and to ensuring that Y3S is a true "third place" - a home away from home - for so many.

Diana’s journey is already the stuff of legend. She bet on herself in her hourly role and then created the role she’s earned through hard work, grit, adaptability and her genuine passion for helping those around her. Her story will be used to help inspire future generations to get on themselves and create the future they want based on their actions.  

Outside of work, Diana loves immersing herself in the arts - whether it's music, digital or creative art, or literature - it’s how she gets out of her comfort zone and allows her creativity to flow. Travelling is another huge passion in her life (as of the writing of this, she’s visited 20+ countries and 42 states). She loves learning about new cultures, trying their traditional dishes, and becoming fully immersed in the community she is visiting.

Without remarkable talent like Diana we wouldn’t be where we are today. Diana’s journey is only beginning and based on what she’s shown us so far, we believe you’ll see that journey take some exciting steps in the future.