VICE PRESIDENT, INCLUSION & BELONGING

Quita Beeler Highsmith, MBA, Vice President, Inclusion & Belonging, Genentech.

Quita is an Advisor, Changemaker, and Inclusion Expert. At Genentech Quita was selected as the first Vice President of Inclusion and Belonging in the 46-year history of the company and reports to the CEO. She is responsible for enterprise-wide strategic initiatives that drive business impact by investing in commercial efforts, stakeholder engagement, research innovation and community relations.

Quita also brings brand marketing, business development and a global leadership perspective. Prior to her Inclusion and Belonging role, she held leadership roles in Commercial and Government Affairs of several companies (Genentech, Sanofi, Aventis) where she impacted and improved revenues. Because she recognized the need to diversify clinical research, she co-founded Advancing Inclusive Research™, an initiative to embrace equitable access.

Quita is routinely requested to address members of Congress, speak at national and international forums, and give media interviews with both large and small outlets, such as WSJ, STAT, The Atlantic, and Essence Magazine. She has co-authored numerous publications regarding health disparities in peer reviewed journals. In 2024, she was selected by Endpoints News as a Top Woman in BioPharma Research, and in 2023 named to the Power 100 List of most influential leaders in the Bay Area.

Quita is an advisor to Cerebral, a mental health startup company and Artis Ventures. She is also committed to community service by working with non-profit boards such as, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Northwest Kidney Centers, Delta San Francisco-Peninsula Scholarship Foundation and The Genentech Patient Foundation, serving on the Audit Committee.

She received both a Master of Business Administration Degree and an Advanced Diversity and Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University, as well as her undergraduate degree from the University of Kentucky.