CVS Health has recently announced that Shari Slate will be its new Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, effective Feb. 27. She will report to Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer Laurie Havanec. 

In this role, Slate will be responsible for the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy and its implementation, with the goal of ensuring that CVS’s workforce reflects the communities it serves. 

She will also lead its workforce initiatives and strategic diversity management efforts by embedding DEI into the company’s business processes, workforce programs, and community initiatives. 

“CVS Health is redefining the consumer healthcare journey. Our ability to be successful requires us to bring diverse and inclusive solutions to the marketplace — work that can only be done with the very best talent representing the communities where we live and work. I look forward to building on CVS Health’s strong foundation to advance our purpose and the sense of community our colleagues and consumers deeply value,” said Slate in a statement. 

Prior to joining CVS Health, Slate worked at Cisco for 13 years, serving most recently as the Chief Inclusion and Collaboration Officer and Senior Vice President of Inclusive Future and Strategy. While there, her team helped create the company’s Inclusive Future Action Office, which oversaw a budget of $300 million. 

Before this, she worked at Sun Microsystems as the Chief Diversity Officer and Director of Global Community Affairs. She also sits on several boards, including that of the CSU Foundation Board of Governors for California State University. 

Havanec said of Slate, “Shari is a respected business leader and a champion of innovative people-oriented practices related to diversity and inclusion. Her addition to our team will help us continue to build our diverse, inclusive and consumer-focused culture that’s at the heart of everything we do.” 

Slate is a graduate of Mills College, where she earned a B.A. in Political, Legal, and Economic Analysis.