CVS Health today announced that Shari Slate will join the company as Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, effective February 27, reporting to Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer Laurie Havanec.

In this role, Slate will be responsible for CVS Health’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategy, innovation and implementation to ensure the company’s workforce of more than 300,000 employees reflects the communities it serves. Shari will also lead CVS Health’s workforce initiatives and strategic diversity management efforts with a focus on aligning to the company’s purpose and embedding diversity, equity and inclusion into business processes, workforce programs and community initiatives.

“Shari is a respected business leader and a champion of innovative people-oriented practices related to diversity and inclusion,” said Havanec. “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 comes to CVS Health with more than a decade of experience at Cisco, where she served as Chief Inclusion and Collaboration Officer and Senior Vice President, Inclusive Future and Strategy. In that role she created innovative solutions to address critical diversity, equity and inclusion challenges and accelerate the pipeline of diverse talent at every level. Slate’s team was also instrumental in creating Cisco’s Inclusive Future Action Office, which had oversight of a $300M budget.

“CVS Health is redefining the consumer health care 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,” Slate said. “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.”