Corporate Disability Inclusion Consultant,
President, Deb Russell Inc.

Deb Russell has recently started a new corporate disability inclusion consultancy, Deb Russell, Inc. to continue her leadership in assisting companies in expanding their inclusion of people with disabilities.   Until 2012, Ms. Russell was a Corporate Manager for Diversity and Inclusion at Walgreen Co.  She provided thought leadership and oversight of the company’s strategy to include more people with disabilities in its workforce.  Supply Chain, Walgreens’ first division to execute he strategy resulted in 10% of the workforce being people who identified themselves as people with disabilities. In addition, provided 5 years of data to demonstrate higher safety ratings and retention with equal productivity and quality data.  The second division, retail, is executing their strategy in early 2013 after piloting the model for 2 years.  The pilot also showed promising results almost achieving the goal of 1 in 10 new hires being people recruited via the program.  These results not only demonstrated a positive impact on the company’s bottom-line but also on the brand via customer and shareholder feedback.  As part of her tenure at Walgreens, Ms. Russell also provided disability inclusion strategy development for ten other Fortune 100 corporations and over 50 Fortune 1000 companies.

Deb is considered an expert in corporate disability inclusion and has provided testimony to congress on this issue.  She is in high demand as a public speaker across the US as well as internationally.  Deb’s experience with providing assistance to many companies across many industries has provided her with the opportunities to develop customized strategies for almost any community, industry, work environment and corporation.  In the past 5 years, her work at Walgreens has been highlighted in over 50 different publications.

Deb currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors for the US Business Leadership Network, and has been a member of the board for 5 years. Her background includes working in the field of disability inclusion for more than 20 years. 

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