Eileen Howard Dunn is a champion, of her industry, her employees and for the causes of the CVS Caremark Charitable Trust. It is not as if it comes easy.
As CVS Caremark Corp.’s senior vice president of corporate communications and community relations, a wife, and mother of five young children, sometimes she struggles. But more often, she excels.
Dunn joined CVS Caremark in 2004, bringing experience from her former positions at J.P. Morgan, Talbots and Home Depot to her new job. Since joining CVS, she not only oversaw the internal and external communications during CVS Caremark’s 2004 acquisition of 1,260 Eckerd Stores and the 2006 acquisition of more than 700 Osco and Sav-on stores, but she completely restructured the way CVS communicates with the public and where it focuses on philanthropy.
CVS Caremark traditionally had directed its philanthropic efforts towards children, although the trust lacked focus. Like many large companies, it spread money around to worthy but varied causes.
But Howard Dunn saw the incredible potential for so much more. She requested an audit to examine where the money was going, who it was helping, and how effective it was.
As a result of the findings, the company decided to focus its efforts on children with disabilities. And Howard Dunn became instrumental in developing the five-year, $25 million program, All Kids Can.
The program, currently in its third year, was designed to have an impact both at the national and local levels.
“Not a lot of large companies focus in that area,” said Howard Dunn. “We wanted to stick with children, but focus somewhere we thought we could make an impact.”
“What so impresses me the most about Eileen,” said John Kelly, CEO of Meeting Street School, one of CVS Caremark’s nonprofit partners, “is her focus on inclusion. Disabilities come in all shapes in sizes. It’s not just children in wheelchairs.”
“Eileen is tough,” said Kelly. “When you’re passionate about your beliefs and what you’ve committed to, you need to be tough. But she’s tough in a way that gets things done.”
Erin Pensa, senior public relations manager at CVS Caremark, remembers when she went to Howard Dunn with a “really forward-thinking” public relations program. “She championed it up to every level in the company. If she believes in what you’re doing, she really pushes it through to the highest levels and gives credit where it is due,” said Pensa.
As for Howard Dunn, she says her greatest accomplishment is a draw between becoming a mother, which taught her to be less self-involved and more focused on the world, and to have the opportunity at work to help so many people. “It’s an unbelievable reward seeing the looks on the children’s faces and their family’s,” she said.
“I am lucky to have been afforded such a great family and blessed with the opportunity to be able to do my job in a way that I can do it successfully.” •
