UF online Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management master’s prepares former Disney instructor to teach his own class at UCLA

Duplissea, who formerly taught new Disneyland employees the ins and outs of working at the Anaheim resort, spent the summer of 2026 preparing to teach a new course on hospitality at UCLA. He made the career move after completing UF’s online Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management master’s program, which he undertook during the pandemic and finished in late 2022. 

“It really helped me get my foot in the door to say I had a master’s degree,” said Duplissea, a native of the San Francisco Bay Area. “The coursework that I learned was really high-level on properties and hospitality in general. We didn’t just cover hotels in the master’s degree, which I appreciated. We talked about cruise ships, theme parks, restaurants and other places where hospitality is important. I’ll be able to cover that in my coursework at UCLA as well, because everybody can learn the service standards that I’ll be teaching.” 

Those service standards—which can range from something as simple as smiling when you pass someone, to offering time of day greetings like “good morning” and “good evening” to guests—promise to be the foundation of Duplissea’s course at UCLA. “That has to be taught,” Duplissea said, particularly in an era when many students are accustomed to far more informal interactions over text message or email. 

A ‘holistic education’ 

Duplissea has been preaching service standards for some time—he’s worked as a concierge and guest service team lead at the Disneyland Hotel, as a trainer at Disneyland Resort, and as a corporate trainer for The Walt Disney Company itself. At Disneyland Hotel, he oversaw a staff of 30 that managed over 900 rooms. At Disneyland, he conducted orientations for hundreds of new hires covering everything from parking to pyrotechnics. 

“I taught four different classes there,” Duplissea said. “One was an introduction to Disney, basically how to be a Disney cast member. That was in front of about 200 people over an eight-hour day. Then I taught another eight-hour class specifically on service standards, so I went from teaching people in a big class how to interact on a broad level, to zeroing in specifically on hotels. I also taught a class on point-of-sale software, and I trained people one-on-one for 10 days in hospitality work.” 

The decision to pursue a master’s degree came during the pandemic, which closed the resort’s hotels for 14 months. Duplissea wanted a highly regarded program backed by a brick-and-mortar campus, both of which UF offered. The flexibility built into UF’s online model helped accommodate Duplissea’s West Coast schedule, and the lockdown allowed him to focus fully on his thesis—which was on using a storytelling approach to enhance an experience-based brand, and was selected as an innovative paper by UF’s Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute. 

Duplissea credits his UF experience, particularly the work he did with Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management Program Chair Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu, in helping to sharpen and refine the hospitality skills he had developed over years working at Disney and other hotels. Now he prepares to relay many of those same lessons to his own students at UCLA.

“I would definitely say that UF gave me the kind of holistic education that I needed,” Duplissea said. “ It was in more than just the classwork—it was also in the office hours, talking to people after the course. They really want to expand the idea of how to get into hospitality, which was an integral part of what I was learning at UF.”

Interesting and inspirational 

Duplissea plans to bring much of what he learned at Disney and UF into his new class at UCLA. He envisions having students conduct mock check-in procedures, or go through addressing different guest complaints—or “opportunities,” as they’re known in the business. For instance, how do you handle a guest coming to the front desk at 9:30 p.m. and demanding a different room, even if you’re completely booked? How do you remain not just civil, but also attentive to guests in a hospitable way?

“The people that I’m finding are doing entry-level work at hotels are basically in their early to mid-20s, and there are life experiences that they don’t have,” he said. “But the main thing is basically personalizing interactions with guests, anticipating needs and showing genuine interest and care in them. It’s about making guests feel welcome and special.” 

Duplissea’s tourism class is slated to begin at UCLA in the winter quarter of 2027. He may teach another course on point-of-sale software, an area in which he also tutored new hires at Disney. His online master’s degree in Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management from UF proved the final piece in making it all happen. 

“I would absolutely recommend [UF’s online Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management master’s program] to others in the field,” Duplissea said. “I found the work that I was doing varied and interesting and inspirational, especially the work that I did with Dr. Fu. She was a great mentor, and very supportive of what I was doing. The leadership there definitely helped guide me, and it helped prepare me for the real-life workplace that I find myself in—whether it’s looking for new opportunities, growing in the opportunity that I have, or helping mentor new people. I really got that through my UF education.”

About the online Master of Science in Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management  

The 100 percent online, instructor-led Master of Science in Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management program is designed for working professionals and those just getting started in their careers. Using real data from top industry experts, graduate students develop resource-based views and comprehensive strategies for managing and leading tourism, hospitality and event organizations. 

The program allows you to earn your degree and apply what you learn in the classroom to your current and future work environments. Students will also obtain a holistic perspective of environmental concerns that impact visitation to sensitive areas, including how to build sustainable initiatives into a business model and how to use unique faculty-developed tools to better respond to these issues. Ignite your tourism, hospitality and event management career with our streamlined admissions process.