Diversity Spotlight
The Diversity Spotlight celebrates the accomplishments of our members, health care leaders and other diversity champions.
In the Spotlight: Ray Hood, Denny's Chief Diversity Officer
When Ray Hood came to Denny’s as chief diversity officer in 1995, she found a company in ruins. As a result of several highly publicized incidences of blatant racism in its restaurants, the company had just settled a class-action lawsuit for $54 million, had seen its share price slide from $23 to less than $1.85, and was, in Hood’s words, “the poster child for discrimination.” Today, thanks largely to her Herculean efforts, Denny’s is ranked No. 1 on Fortune magazine’s list of “America’s 50 Best Companies for Minorities.”
Hood took a few minutes to chat with the Institute while she was in Chicago this summer to address the Institute’s National Leadership and Education Conference on Diversity.