Alumni Profile
As a senior product manager for Chick-fil-A, Shona Jonson (MS – Food Science, '90) helps launch new menu items for the chicken sandwich giant. The development team typically starts with a hundred or more ideas before narrowing them down to one or two new menu creations.
Alum finds satisfaction in chicken sandwich kingdom
At Chick-fil-A in McDonough, Ga., Shona Jonson buses a table, wipes down another and straightens chairs at another. As senior manager of product development, her duties don't require her to tidy up at any of the 1,300 Chick-fil-A restaurants. But her company pride and responsibility do.
Jonson's love of food science began as she was growing up in Clayton County."I can remember working in the garden with my great-grandfather picking peas, corn, muscadines and figs and spending hours helping my grandmother can what we had grown," she said. "I truly learned what it means to take food from the farm to the fork."
After high school, a hobby class at Atlanta Area Tech led her into nutrition studies at the UGA College of Home Economics (now Family and Consumer Sciences). And when a professor recommended food science classes, she discovered the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Her interest in sensory work led her to graduate school. She worked alongside UGA professor Anna Resurreccion in the college's food sensory laboratory in Griffin.
After graduation, Jonson left the South for Nebraska and ConAgra's frozen foods division. For seven years, she developed new frozen foods for Healthy Choice, Banquet, Kids Cuisine and Marie Callender's labels. When her husband's job brought them back to Georgia, she worked as a consultant for two years before landing the Chick-fil-A position.
Now, her key responsibility is to create menu items customers will love. "We have pretty high standards at Chick-fil-A," she said. "We want to connect with our customers and be America's best restaurant."
As she works with a team of developers, it takes "about two years for a new menu item to launch," she said. "We start with a hundred or more ideas to get one or two new menu items."
Chick-fil-A keeps its food scientists involved through every stage of product development. "My food science background really helps when I'm taking an idea from the chef to the Chick-fil-A unit," she said.
Jonson enjoys interacting with Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy. "Having the opportunity to develop products for such an awesome company is humbling," she said. "Every product we make has to be signed off on by our customers, operators and executive committee, which includes Truett and Dan Cathy."
Her education prepared her well. "My UGA professors had really high standards," she said. "I think that helped me, because I now do my best and give my best every day."
Jonson now returns the favor by helping UGA interns at Chick-fil-A. "I believe in the importance of blending academic-world and business-world experience," she said.
She's a firm believer in teamwork, too. "(UGA professor) Rob Shewfelt once told me that you don't have to always know the answers, but you have to know where to get the answers," Jonson said. "That's a fundamental truth I live by. I work within my strengths, and I know I'm only as good as the team I work with."