When Michelle Peluso, W’93, was a young woman working as White House Fellow under U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Alexis Herman, she found herself awkwardly killing time with her boss at an airport because their flight was delayed.

After getting coffee and persuading Herman to buy new sunglasses from a shop in the terminal, Peluso ran out of ideas. That’s when she asked Herman for career advice about what makes a good cabinet secretary. And that’s when the conversation got real.

At the White House, every morning began with a crisis. But Herman told Peluso that the mark of good leadership is to chart a bold agenda that sees beyond daily crisis management to accomplish a long-term vision.

“That’s always stuck with me because I think as a leader there are so many things that cross your plate every day. You have to have the people around you and the capacity to think about what makes a difference,” said Peluso.

Now, it’s Peluso’s turn to dispense valuable advice from her own 25-year career that has spanned the data science universe, from travel to finance to health care. She’s currently the executive vice president, chief customer officer, and co-president of retail at CVS Health.

“My success is absolutely based on working with exceptional people,” she said. “The thing that motivates me endlessly is the chance to work with people who are better than me, smarter than me, and have great ideas.”

Peluso was the keynote speaker for the recent Women in Data Science (WiDS) @ Penn Conference, which welcomed academic, industry, and student speakers from across the data science landscape. She implored the student participants to choose their data science careers wisely and behave ethically.

“You will write the code of the future,” she said. “Are we coding things that keep the mistakes of the past front and center? Are our algorithms fair and unbiased? The future is yours to write, and this country needs you to write one that is more equitable, more accessible for all.”

WiDS @ Penn asked Peluso and several other featured speakers to share their best career advice. Keep reading below for their wise words of encouragement.

Executive Vice President, Chief Customer Officer, and Co-President of Retail
CVS Health

Continuously evaluate how you are using your time, talents, and team members, then reprioritize accordingly. Don’t be afraid to pivot or take on something new. And remember, risks don’t always end in reward.

The consumer is Peluso’s “north star” that she uses to guide her through data-driven decisions. She said consumer centricity has become her personal brand and shapes her leadership perspective, which helps her team know exactly what to expect and where to focus.

These are the words by which Peluso lives and works. They are so meaningful that she gave her daughter the middle name Grace. It’s the mantra that led her through hard months after Sept. 11, 2001, when she was running a digital travel business near Ground Zero and bookings evaporated. “We had to be agile learners, we had to take care of each other, we had to listen with empathy, we had to course correct when we were wrong,” she said. “Grit and grace have always been really important to me as a leader. I believe you have to have both to be really good at leadership.”

Peluso said she believes that organizational efforts to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion should start with people who are in the majority, because they hold the power. “If we believe diversity and inclusion creates better business results — and there are countless studies on this topic — then it has to become a business imperative and a priority, and it has to be on the backs of the people who are in positions of privilege.”