14 FORTUNE OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2021
our company all the way through to
the store level. It is very frustrating
for me, being a scientist by nature,
that people are not paying attention
to the facts. I try to be the messen-
ger because the vaccines are saving
lives. It is the game changer.When you look at the trends in
vaccinations right now, what does
that tell you about the stage of the
pandemic we’re in?
This pandemic has shown us that
parts of our communities are very
unhealthy. We have to ask ourselves,
why is that? Are these environ-
ments physically unsafe, or are they
food and health care deserts? This
pandemic struck them the hardest
because they came into it in a very
compromised position.^3
The other part of it is we all need
to understand how important it is
to keep ourselves generally healthy
because you may be less of a target
to these kinds of viruses. It speaks
to how are we going to take care of
ourselves and how are we going to
provide health care in places where
there’s a medically underserved
population. We’ve got places in the
United States that operate almost
identically to third-world countries.PRESCRIPTION PROGNOSTICATIONPharmacies have played a big role
both as vaccination and testing
sites. 4 What do they look like when
the pandemic is over?
We have 9,100 stores across the
U.S., 8 million customers interact-
ing with our stores and online per
day, and 78% of people in America
live within five miles of one of our
stores. The pharmacist is really a
consultant, and in this pandemic
they’ve become more so. Our phar-
macy technicians have also stepped
up. We have trained them, and even
some of our store managers, on how
to deliver immunizations. You can
almost think about this as leveling
up our talent, and our pharmacistsmembers of the WBA board said to
me, “You do realize that this is going
to hit the news like crazy.” I had not
thought about that, because in my
mind I wasn’t going after the CEO
job. I was like, this is interesting—
health care and vaccines.
But it hit me one day, when I
reached out to one of my mentors,
[former PepsiCo CEO] Indra Nooyi,
and she said, “Whoa, this is huge.”
I began to think about it—this is- This should not be that huge
or that big of a deal. And it’s unfor-
tunate that it is. Shame on me if I’m
still in this role and there are not
other minority women making it to
this level.
BETTER LEADING THROUGH
CHEMISTRYYou started as a bench chemist at
Kimberly-Clark. I doubt many other
CEOs have that background. How
do you think that led you to this
path?
I enjoyed chemistry and science, but
I was always in the lab. It’s a very
isolating job. But I really learned
to home in on my critical thinking
skills. I’m quite analytical. I love to
make decisions based on some form
of data. That’s in my DNA. I’ve never
been comfortable with the status quo.
So if things are going smoothly, I
want to mix it up.As someone with a deep back-
ground in science, are you worried
about the anti-science sentiment
we are seeing that’s contributed to
some of the vaccine hesitancy?
I am really adamant about letting
science lead your decisions, espe-
cially in this case. This is about the
science of the virus, the chemistry
of our bodies, and the environ-
ment that we’re in. This is well-
understood science, and I try to get
people to respect that. This is why
we’ve mandated vaccines here in
the oce, and I’ve been speaking
openly about taking that broader inBETWEEN THE
LINESTHE CONVERSATION RETAIL(1) Coffee talk:
Brewer joined the
board of Starbucks
in 2017 after leaving
her role as CEO of
Walmart’s Sam’s
Club. Less than a
year later, Starbucks
CEO Kevin Johnson
tapped her to be the
company’s COO.(2) First and
foremost: Brewer
was the first woman
and first Black
person to be CEO
of Sam’s Club, and
subsequently also
to hold such a senior
role at Starbucks.
She is one of four
Black women to ever
run a Fortune
company, and
WBA is the largest
company ever run by
a Black woman.(3) Jabs for all:
Walgreens has made
vaccine equity a
priority, offering
COVID-19 vaccine
clinics in churches
and community cen-
ters in underserved
areas. In May, the
company launched
a mobile clinic bus
tour.(4) A shot to the
bottom line: In July,
WBA’s third-quarter
fiscal year 2021
financial results beat
analyst expectations
thanks in part to its
role administering
the vaccine. The
company also raised
its fiscal 2021 guid-
ance for the second
quarter in a row.