MILWAUKIE, ORE.— Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods has hired two individuals to guide its future growth as an organization committed to fostering, cultivating and preserving a culture of equity and inclusion, as well as taking a leadership role in environmental best practices.
Zeina Atoui has been named diversity, equity and inclusion specialist. In her new role, she will support the company’s goal of ensuring more equitable representation of Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian communities in its workforce, promoting equal opportunities for growth at all levels of the company, and educating employee owners through training. Ms. Atoui most recently was talent acquisition specialist — onboarding, and earlier was a lead recruiter. She also has worked as a human resources assistant at Bob’s Red Mill.
“Zeina has been a valued employee-owner over the past several years, and we know she’ll do a great job in helping us on our journey to become a more inclusive company that fosters collaboration and creativity,” said Dennis Vaughn, chief executive officer of Bob’s Red Mill. “We believe it’s our responsibility to contribute to the racial justice and equity we want to see in our communities.”
Julia Person has been named sustainability manager. In her new role, she will help lead and grow the company’s existing efforts, and to help better define the role sustainability will have in all facets of the company moving forward. Prior to joining Bob’s Red Mill Ms. Person was project development manager at Puttman Infrastructure, Inc. Earlier, she was corporate sustainability and continuous improvement manager at Craft Brew Alliance. She also was a geospatial technician at Northrop Grumman Corp. and manager of energy and natural resources – analytics and processes at Knowledge Universe.