Kris Lathan is currently holds the position of Corporate Communications at Walgreens, where she serves as the Communications Team Lead. She has been with Walgreens since June 2020, accumulating over three years and four months of dedicated service. Her role is based in Deerfield, Illinois, United States.
EDUCATION
Education-wise, Kris holds a degree in Journalism from the University of Arkansas, where she was actively involved in the Delta Sigma Theta organization.
CAREER
Within her role, Kris has taken on several pivotal responsibilities. She has spearheaded the strategic communications efforts for Walgreens’ highly acclaimed COVID-19 vaccine equity initiative, a remarkable feat that contributed to Walgreens Boots Alliance receiving the PR Week 2021 “Brand of the Year” Purpose Award. Kris’s role also includes orchestrating media strategies and outreach for Walgreens’ COVID-19 vaccine equity task force. She plays a key role in developing key messages, FAQs, prepared remarks, and media training for Walgreens executives, pharmacists, and field leaders. Furthermore, Kris excels in coordinating media responses, content dissemination across multiple channels, and acting as the communications liaison for health equity partners, field leaders, and store teams.
Kris Lathan’s proficiency extends to strategic media outreach, where she successfully targets local and national top-tier media outlets, multicultural channels, and trade press. Some of her noteworthy accomplishments in this domain include securing a live interview with Gayle King on CBS This Morning to discuss the partnership between Walgreens and Uber for driving COVID vaccine equity. Additionally, she has achieved editorial recognition in publications like the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Black Enterprise, and iHeart Radio’s Black Information Network, showcasing Walgreens’ efforts in addressing vaccine hesitancy and providing mobile clinic services at historically Black colleges and universities.
In her role, Kris also serves as the primary point of contact for executive leaders and business partners in various domains, such as legal, government relations, and pharmacy operations. Her responsibilities encompass strategizing, preparing, and distributing media responses for issues affecting Walgreens’ extensive network of 9,000 retail pharmacy store locations. She compiles weekly news digests distributed internally and participates in the after-hours on-call rotation to ensure effective communication.
Beyond her role in corporate communications, Kris Lathan leads the Walgreens Expressions challenge, an annual artistic contest for high schoolers. In this capacity, she collaborates with external agency partners and coordinates with stakeholder groups to align communications messaging, planning, and execution with Walgreens’ overarching goals and objectives.
Kris’s professional journey also includes her tenure as the Head of Corporate Communications at Heartland Dental, where she achieved significant results in earned media strategies and employee engagement. Her accomplishments extended to internal communications initiatives, including the launch of ‘HeartSource,’ a human resource information system (HRIS) impacting over 12,000 employees. She also played a pivotal role in crisis communications for supported dental offices and identified storytelling opportunities for internal and external purposes.
Before joining Heartland Dental, Kris served as the Director of Communications at The Kennedy Forum Illinois, where she managed strategic media relations activities, secured feature stories in prominent print and broadcast outlets, and maintained crucial databases for media and stakeholder contacts. Her role also involved curating news digests, designing and distributing promotions for monthly panel discussion series, and ensuring the effective implementation of media relations strategies.
Kris’s versatile career path includes her experience as a Business Development Executive at MXOtech, Inc., where she identified, researched, and cultivated leads for sales opportunities, including a pitch for a custom program development for Ford Motor Company. She also contributed to corporate narrative content and managed corporate networking events and online presence.
Furthermore, Kris Lathan has held the position of Director of Public Relations at Northwestern Medicine, where she oversaw strategic media relations and external communications efforts. Under her leadership, Northwestern Medicine achieved significant growth in annual media placements and successfully launched its presence on various social media platforms. She played a key role in crisis communications, media strategy development, and coordination with the Northwestern Memorial Foundation for fundraising efforts.
Before Northwestern Medicine, Kris served as the Director of Public Affairs at AAA-The Auto Club Group, where she managed a team and budget while serving as the Illinois communications lead for internal and external communications. Her achievements included developing earned media plans, media training, spokesperson responsibilities, and executing car seat safety promotions.
Kris’s career journey also included roles as the Media Relations Manager at Nicor Gas and as a Senior Account Supervisor at Hill+Knowlton Strategies. At Nicor Gas, she served as the primary media spokesperson, provided strategic media counsel to key executives, and coordinated media response during crisis situations. She also played a significant role in grassroots campaigns and investor relations.
In her position at Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Kris coordinated and facilitated communications counseling for a diverse range of clients and provided crisis communications leadership during the 1999 mercury crisis for client Nicor Gas. Her role also included writing investor communications and providing executive media training sessions.
Kris Lathan began her career as a Communications Analyst at Morningstar, where she created editorial content based on mutual fund ratings and engaged in daily news reporting and interviews.
