Donna DeBerry moved to San Diego from Austin to “hang at the beach and have a good time,” she says. After a successful diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) career spanning several cities and prominent corporations—Indeed.com, Starbucks, Nike, Wyndham—DeBerry thought she was ready to retire. But the beach would have to wait.
“I decided that something was missing from my life at that moment, and once more I needed to give back,” DeBerry says.
In January 2020, she became president and CEO of the County of San Diego Black Chamber of Commerce (CSDBCC), where she supports minority- and women-owned enterprises. “Everybody should live for a legacy transforming and shaping peoples’ lives for the better,” she says.
Early in her career, corporate HR roles offered DeBerry insight into the systemic challenges women and Black people face in the business world. DeBerry founded her consulting business to show executives how inclusive policies positively impact companies’ bottom line.
“The struggles are still real for women, especially women of color, in business,” DeBerry says. “It’s a question of equality versus equity. Yes, we might have an equal opportunity to start a business, but we don’t have equitable access to the capital that we need to compete.”
Photo Credit: Erica Joan
In March 2024, CSDBCC launched the Women’s Kitchen Table as a safe space to network and organize. DeBerry keeps tabs on San Diego’s wealthiest institutions, like SDG&E and UC San Diego—just two of the many organizations CSDBCC partners with—to make sure minority-owned businesses have access to vendor contracts, along with funding to support growth. Under her tenure, San Diego–based corporations have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to support CSDBCC initiatives—Sony Electronics alone has contributed more than $200,000.
“[Something] I’m proud of, personally and professionally, is that any time I’m in an influential position, I bring more women along,” DeBerry says. “It’s my responsibility to open those doors.”
DeBerry recently sold her Carlsbad home and moved onto a boat at Pier 32. At 69, she has raised four children and now has four grandchildren. “This is my best life, doing something good for the community,” she says.
