As the Sr. Director of Procurement at Centene, Kendra Burris-Austin developed two distinct strategies, one each for the national and local levels. Each strategy has goals that include spend, inclusion, and economic impact. Because she has a multi-level approach with differing objectives, there is an outcome that drives spend with smaller, localized companies and with large entities that drive innovation and cost savings. Kendra maintains a balance between the strategies to ensure opportunities for diverse suppliers are opening within multiple states. She also supports Centene’s core value of serving its members and keeping them healthy by strategies that translate into how and from whom the organization buys products and services.
Kendra works with business development, social determinants of health, and other business lines to drive community spend and economic impact. She connected supplier diversity to DEI, sales, external affairs, and more to gain the full support of senior management. A comprehensive plan was rolled out to embed supplier diversity in other corporate initiatives. Once the overall goals were endorsed by their leadership, integration of supplier diversity and economic impact efforts were cascaded across the company.