Renita Jefferson has a fifteen year history with the American Greetings Corporation. During her tenure she has held leadership roles in the Information Services Division and Human Resources, culminating in her current role as the Director of Leadership Development and Diversity & Inclusion.
In her role as Director of Leadership Development, Renita is the architect for all corporate-wide and functional lines of business Leadership Development programs as well as overseeing the corporate university, ImAGine U. Renita also serves as a key resource to the organization in areas of talent management, organization development and change management.
American Greetings’ mission is to create Happiness, Laughter and Love and Employee Engagement is critical to the realization of this mission. As Director of Diversity & Inclusion, Renita has aligned the execution of the multi-year Diversity & Inclusion strategy to enable one of American Greetings’ key values – “We care about People and treat them with Respect”. Under her leadership, the Diversity and Inclusion work has evolved from merely a “people process” into an integrated strategy in support of talent development and performance management.
Essential to the success of this strategy has been establishing and sustaining community partnerships with organizations such as United Way, Boys & Girls Clubs, Rainey Institute, Esperanza and Plexus, and most recently in celebration of the Women of Color Foundation‘s 10th year anniversary as sponsor of the “Speaking of Women! A Dialogue Series for Women in Leadership”.
Renita leads the Executive Diversity & Inclusion Board which is comprised of Sr. Leadership charged with corporate-wide integration of Diversity & Inclusion key principles and strategic goals. She also leads a Forum which empowers associates to become advocates for Inclusion. In her role as Employee Resource Network leader she has grown the engagement of associate groups by 50%. She leads the Employee Resource Network Executive Sponsors in the development and implementation of the Resource Networks’ strategic goals – Recruit, Develop and Retain.
In 2009, under Renita’ s leadership, the African American Resource Network was awarded American Greetings’ highest recognition honor – The Chairman’s Award for Excellence in Teamwork.
In June of 2012, Renita received the Diversity & Inclusion Professional of the Year Award from the Women of Color Foundation.
Renita L. Jefferson received her BA from Malone College (1992) in Canton, Ohio and her MBA from the University of Phoenix (2004). Renita is a member of The U.S. Executive Diversity & Inclusion Conference Board; Council of Economic Inclusion Diversity Professionals Group; American Society of Training and Development, Cleveland Chapter; The Cleveland Peer Group/ International Management Studies; Cleveland Women’s Leadership Council; Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Executive Board member and Alumna; Lead Diversity Center of North East Ohio.
A resident of Berea, OH, Renita is the wife of Keith A. Jefferson and proud mother of 4 sons and a precious new baby grandson.
