Rite Aid Names Texanna Reeves Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Rite Aid has hired Texanna Reeves, a respected diversity and inclusion leader, to develop and implement the organization’s overall diversity, inclusion and belonging strategy. Rite Aid has continued to hire senior leaders to drive forward its broader RxEvolution strategy, and the addition of Reeves signals the organization’s commitment to sustainable systemic change as a key component of its overall transformation.
“Diversity and inclusion are essential to everything we do at Rite Aid,” said Jessica Kazmaier, executive vice president and chief human resources officer, Rite Aid. “To best serve our communities, our business ought to reflect those communities. The addition of Texanna will help elevate and focus our overall efforts to be an equal-opportunity employer of choice for people of broad perspectives and experiences, cultures, genders, races and generations. We know this will contribute to a stronger and more successful Rite Aid.”
In her role as vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, Reeves will work closely with Rite Aid’s executive leaders, including Rite Aid’s CEO Heyward Donigan, to facilitate best practices in fostering and affirming an inclusive company culture. She will work to advance organizational shared responsibility for achieving Rite Aid’s strategic goals related to diversity, inclusion and belonging, ultimately ensuring alignment to the RxEvolution strategy. Her duties will include establishing and leading an enterprise cross-functional diversity council at Rite Aid and partnering with the organization’s HR Centers of Excellence (COEs) and legal department to embed DE&I best practices into its talent attraction, retention and development strategies.
“I believe it is important to go beyond rhetoric and strive for measurable progress in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion. I’m thrilled Rite Aid is so committed to the advancement of these goals across the organization and recognizes the relevance of DE&I to the success of the business,” said Reeves. “I look forward to partnering with Rite Aid leadership to ensure DE&I is strategically integrated in every facet of Rite Aid’s future plans – particularly at such a consequential and transformative time in the company’s history.”
Reeves has extensive experience developing and executing diversity and inclusion strategies at Fortune 100 companies such as Merck, S.C. Johnson, Sodexo and Georgia-Pacific Corporation. She also brings to Rite Aid thought leadership in the DE&I space. In addition to her in-house roles, Reeves recently launched Engage U, a consultancy providing expertise on diversity and inclusion management services. Her primary Engage U client was Gilead Sciences. She holds a bachelors of business administration and an MBA from Mercer University’s Stetson School of Business and Economics.