Andrea Young, chief operating officer for experiential services, knows a thing or two about the power of being one\u2019s authentic self.<\/p>\n
As Advantage Solutions\u2019 first openly LGBTQ+ executive leader, Young was a founding member of the company\u2019s diversity, equity and inclusion board in 2020. Years earlier, upon her hire, she helped to expand benefits for same-sex couples at the company. A former college basketball player, Young played for Rice University on a scholarship at a time when few women college athletes received scholarships.<\/p>\n
Throughout her life and career, Young has broken through barriers, creating opportunities for others who might be marginalized or disenfranchised.<\/p>\n
This week at the Kroger Wellness Festival, which draws 200,000-plus attendees and is produced by Young\u2019s team at Advantage Solutions, she\u2019ll host a conversation about inclusion with Laurie Hernandez, a trailblazing Latina gymnast who won gold and silver medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics.<\/p>\n
In a recent interview, Young talked about the power of the Kroger Wellness Festival, and what it means to her to be on the panel with Hernandez.<\/p>\n
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n
Q. What do you love about the Kroger Wellness Festival, having been there and experienced it before?<\/strong><\/p>\n A. It is literally the best part of what we do at Advantage. And I don’t mean it’s the best business or it’s the best program. I mean, what we do better than anyone in industry, I believe, is solve and help \u2014 help customers or clients, and solve new problems.<\/p>\n At this year\u2019s festival, we\u2019ll have 221 brands that are sponsoring, we will have six performance stages, two concerts, and two and a half days of content from thought partners and influencers across industry to promote community wellness. This will mark the third year that we are the central production and promotion partner that puts the entire thing together.<\/p>\n We’re thrilled to produce this major event in partnership with one of the largest grocery retailers in the United States. It\u2019s one of the proudest things I’ve ever done at this company.<\/p>\n Q. At this year\u2019s Kroger Wellness Festival, you\u2019ll be on a panel about inclusion with Laurie Hernandez. How did this come to be?<\/strong><\/p>\n A. We focus every year on the central initiative around wellness and community building. That’s always our principle. But then there’s always this undertone of care. And Kroger has really upped its commitment to belonging and impact and its DEI efforts, as has Advantage and our partners at Kroger Health.<\/p>\n And so as we were putting together the agenda and the panels for this year, the head of Kroger Health said to me: \u2018You’re fiercely committed to inclusion. Advantage is fiercely committed to inclusion, yeah? And we feel like this panel, in addition to you being a female college athlete way back in the day, is a perfect confluence of your passions and the work that we’ve done together, and we would love for you to host it.\u2019<\/p>\n Q. How excited are you to meet and talk with Laurie Hernandez?<\/strong><\/p>\n A. Laurie Hernandez is a change agent. She broke new ground. She broke through a glass ceiling. She was willing to put herself in positions that you know were unique and in doing so, she created opportunity for those behind her. And in my own way, with the support of a great team, I believe I\u2019ve done that here. And the executives at Kroger who know me and know my journey, that’s what they saw.<\/p>\n Q. Why is inclusion so important to you personally?<\/strong><\/p>\n A. I\u2019ve been married to my partner, Lisa, for 27 years. When I came to Advantage 14 years ago, our southern California-based company of 30,000 people did not have domestic partner or same sex benefits. (Editor\u2019s note: Today, more than 70,000 people work at Advantage, which is now headquartered in the St. Louis, Missouri suburb of Clayton.)<\/p>\n I insisted that the policy be adopted for the company as a condition of my hire. And it took two years for it to happen, but two years later, we had domestic partner benefits. And now we have same-sex partner policy benefits. And I felt it was important to make sure that families that looked like mine \u2014 whether they were openly identifying themselves within the Advantage ecosystem or not \u2014 that they had the opportunity and privilege to feel as safe as an employee of the company as every other type of family.<\/p>\n I believe if you can bring your authentic self to work, then you can bring stronger diversity of thought, stronger leadership, stronger collaboration. That\u2019s why the concept of customer experience journey mapping<\/strong> resonates so strongly with me\u2014because when people feel safe, they engage more fully, and that impacts everything from culture to business outcomes.<\/p>\n The more that you create opportunity for people to do things beyond what they might even believe they’re capable of \u2014 the better organization you create.<\/p>\n Q. What has our company\u2019s DEI journey looked like from your perspective?<\/strong><\/p>\n A. We put a voice to our DEI commitment for the first time ever in May of 2020, and the thing that was the most successful in the first two-plus years of launching our DEI board was our employee resource groups, which galvanized our teammates more than anything I’ve ever seen in my 14 years at the company.<\/p>\n And those employee resource groups created influence networks, mentorship and just communities for people to feel a part of. We created space for there to be open, courageous conversations around gender and ethnic diversity, which we were lacking, and we opened the conversation and created safe space for sexual identification, as well as empowering uniquely abled teammates to have a voice and a space at the company.<\/p>\n We\u2019re proud to have such amazing champions across our ERGs. We\u2019re taking those efforts even further by operating with a purpose to enrich lives, partnering with organizations that share those values and deepening our commitment through our dedicated Belonging and Impact team.<\/p>\n And I couldn’t be more excited about where we’re headed.<\/p>\n Q. When you\u2019re at the Kroger Wellness Festival, surrounded by thousands of people committed to wellness and positive community, how does it make you feel?<\/strong><\/p>\n A. Incredibly proud of our team. What they pull off in this four-day period is incredible. And I just feel very grateful for the opportunity, particularly like this conversation about inclusion, to be able to have a platform to share stories and motivate people. It\u2019s an incredible gift to be able to do that as part of my day job.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Andrea Young, chief operating officer for experiential services, knows a thing or two about the power of being one\u2019s authentic self. As Advantage Solutions\u2019 first openly LGBTQ+ executive leader, Young was a founding member of the company\u2019s diversity, equity and inclusion board in 2020. Years earlier, upon her hire, she helped to expand benefits for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2385,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"mrktblog-category":[43],"class_list":["post-2386","mrktblog-posts","type-mrktblog-posts","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","mrktblog-category-people"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Inclusion Is a Personal Mission<\/h3>\n