Nicknamed 'Ray', Hood-Phillips grew up in central city Detroit and graduated from Michigan State University, where she earned her Master of Arts degree in communication arts and science. Hood-Phillips worked to build a long and successful track record in advertising and marketing at major agencies in the Midwest. Recalling the early days of her career, she says, "I've experienced it--the inequities, the glass ceiling, and all that stuff. I could tell stories that would make my colleagues' hair stand on end. But all the things that have happened to me helped me understand more about what I'm doing now, and about how you begin to tear down the barriers between people."

Hood-Phillips tore down some barriers single-handedly as she became the highest-ranking black woman in the Burger King corporation, earning the title of vice-president of human resources. She worked for two years in advertising and marketing before she was asked to start a new department--minority affairs. To some degree, the new department was a response to earlier charges of discrimination made by minority franchisees and suppliers against Burger King in the early 80's. Knowing that taking the helm of a volatile situation would be challenging, Hood-Phillip's boss promised her she'd only be required to spend two years on the project. Hood-Phillips balked at first, feeling strongly that she absolutely did not want to take on the task of helping Burger King avoid a boycott. However, as Adamson observed, "Ray is a very devout woman with a strong faith. When she took the weekend to think about it and pray over it, she finally agreed."

Hood-Phillips created an innovative program at Burger King that Adamson described as "incredible." Her tough, yet compassionate, diversity training program allowed employees to communicate what they were feeling about race and ethnicity in the workplace. Participants signed confidentiality statements to ensure that what was said in the group would not be disclosed to outsiders. In this way, group members felt safe enough to share their deepest fears, and their very real prejudices. The training took place in three-day sessions for groups of 20 to 25 people at a time. Hood-Phillips intended for the program to do more than just get people to talk and vent. The program showed people how to overcome the narrow-mindedness it exposed, and to build, in Hood-Phillips's words, "productive, collaborative partnerships across lines of difference."

Although morale plunged and distrust grew at Burger King during a period of corporate cost cutting, Burger King CEOs were so impressed with Hood-Phillips's program that they directed every executive to take time for her diversity training immediately. Hood-Phillips continued her work with Burger King and launched her own consulting business.

When Denny's restaurants nearly drown in their own hot water over racial discrimination, CEO Adamson thought of Hood-Phillips, who he had worked with previously when he was in the top position at Burger King. "I knew that doing this work on diversity and inclusion was her passion and her life," Adamson says. Always impressed with Hood-Phillips, Adamson had often told her he believed that she could continue her rise to the top. However, when Hood-Phillips got Adamson's phone call asking for help with the Denny's turn-around in April 1995, she thought the call must be an April Fool's joke. The charges of discrimination against Denny's, which included acts as outrageous as the outright refusal of Denny's employees to serve people of color and demands that blacks pay cover charges or pre-pay for meals--were horrifying. The idea of eating at Denny's, for Blacks and for the nation, had become a joke. "Denny's has a new burger-it's called the 'discrimination burger'", comedian Jay Leno ranted. "You order it and they refuse to serve it to you."

Hood-Phillips had a lot to think about. Did Denny's even deserve her help in cleaning up their image? However, as she explains, "I had two choices: I could stay in my comfortable place or rage against the darkness," she said. "I chose to rage."

Hood-Phillips' mission at Advantica was daunting indeed, but she became truly inspired. "I began thinking and dreaming," she said. She concluded that she wanted to lead Denny's from darkness--to turn it first inside out, and then right side up. Hood-Phillips hoped Denny's could become "a model of how a company manages diversity to benefit the company's 'bottom line'--to really leverage it in the marketplace."

Hood-Phillips agreed to consult for Advantica two or three days a week. Waking at three o'clock in the morning to take a dawn flight from Miami to Spartanburg, she arrived in the Advantica offices by 9:30 A.M. Adamson and Hood-Phillips planned that she would investigate the company, examine the consent decree, the legal agreement resulting from the numerous discrimination suits that dictated new business practices for Denny's, then Hood-Phillips would make recommendations for new hires and new programs.

Hood-Phillips quickly became engrossed in her work. At one point, she exclaimed to Adamson, "This is huge! The opportunity is so large, and there's nowhere to go but up, given our public image and everything that's happened."

Hood-Phillips met with the leaders of the old Denny's team. "They were all white males--nice people-- but all from the same geographic area, the same schools and the same age groups." According to Hood-Phillips, the problem was "They didn't understand diversity or what their customer base looked like." They had no ad campaigns addressing minorities--all the customers in ads were white--and no in-house research to find out how to target minority markets.

Hood-Phillips worked 18-hour days for several months. Her 1996 focus groups found that 67 percent of African-Americans surveyed intended to never set foot in a Denny's restaurant. Inspired to work harder to change the depressing statistics, she moved to Spartanburg and joined the Advantica team full-time, earning the title of chief diversity officer.

Hood-Phillips ultimately brought new thinking into every area of Advantica, including recruiting for executives. "Blacks attend black schools," Hood-Phillips said. "You have to fish where the fish are." She applied to same philosophy to finding franchisees and suppliers.

She even helped Adamson reframe his own unrealistic attitudes about race and diversity. Hood-Phillips likes to remind Adamson of a time when they were having a dialogue with a group of executives about their outlook on diversity and inclusiveness. At one point, in speaking to the group, Adamson stated his opinion. "We need to be color-blind; we can't see color," Adamson believed. Hood-Phillips waited until the two were alone before she pulled Adamson aside. As he describes it, "She really took me out to the woodshed that day."

Hood-Phillips was very blunt in her disagreement with Adamson and his perception that 'color-blindness' was the way to deal with diversity. "All human beings have differences," Hood-Phillips explained. "People of different racial and ethnic backgrounds have different cultural and social references and therefore don't think or act in the same ways. Hood-Phillips helped Adamson understand that "we do have differences; [we] need to recognize that." Hood-Phillips made the important distinction that treating everyone the same is not the answer; there's no reason to expect that each of us will think or behave alike. Accepting and embracing differences in people is the answer. And in spite of our unique differences, each human being, regardless of cultural and social preferences, deserves the same rights and privileges.

The Glass-Half-Full

The president of Advantica's Denny's unit, John Romandetti, describes the phenomenal spirit and enthusiasm that Hood-Phillips brings to work every day. "I get tired of just looking at Ray, she has so much energy. I've known her for a lot of years. Her optimism is just amazing. I love it; I love glass-half-full kind of people. Ray is not only 'half-full'--she really overflows."

Adamson describes Hood-Phillips this way -- "She's a woman of great heart and great integrity. I seek her counsel on every major problem we have."

Secrets to Success

What's her secret to success? Citing a passage from Apostle Paul, Hood advises, "Forget what's behind and strain on to what is ahead. Don't dwell too long on your past mistakes or achievements. That's not to say you can't learn from your mistakes, but just don't let your rearview mirror become larger than the windshield."

Hood-Phillips feels that at Denny's, she has very little direct control over management. Her role is rather to educate and to persuade. "It is 90 percent influence and trying to help people understand this [diversity] is good for us--for the team and for business.

No Diversity? No Incentive Bonus

Hood-Phillips continued to focus on helping Advantica and Denny's people "get it right", serving as their point person in an ongoing quest. Hood-Phillips oversees diversity-training sessions, which are mandatory for every worker at every level of the company, from cooks and cashiers to chief executive officers. From the ground up, Hood-Phillips built the materials and structure that made the Denny's image turn-around possible. Hood-Phillips developed initiatives to monitor progress in every area of Denny's operations, paying close attention to strategic decisions and actions of senior management and board members that affect everything from purchasing to philanthropy.

According to Adams, "Her work was vital to our success." Hood-Phillips's systems of tracking allowed Adamson to determine if and where progress was being made. "Because I could effectively monitor the progress of senior management, I could begin to tie 25% of the senior management team's incentive bonus to the advancement of woman and people of color. That wouldn't have been possible without Ray's hard work, her organizational skills, and her powers of persuasion."

"Wow, We Did It!"

In 1998, Fortune magazine ranked Advantica as the number two best company for minorities in the nation, and since then, Advantica has climbed to number one, with 35 percent of Denny's franchises minority owned. Hood-Phillips's 1998 polls showed that 40 percent of African-Americans still would never consider eating a meal at Denny's. However, in comparison to the 67 percent who avoided Denny's while the discrimination lawsuits were prominent in our national consciousness, a million more African-Americans now might woof down the Grand Slam breakfast before church on Sunday, or stop in for pie with friends after a late movie.

Reflecting on her part in cleaning up Denny's tarnished operation, Hood-Phillips said, "Wow, we did it!" Not a day goes by when another organization doesn't call and ask, "How did you do it? Hood-Phillips has continued to educate others and in 1999, was a featured panelist in a nationally televised PBS special about racial legacies and learning.

Hood-Phillips reminds Advantica's employees, "Miracles can happen. They can--when you believe in the mission, when you believe in the vision and the team."

Hood-Phillips's advice to other companies is to start working on developing inclusion now, before any crisis can develop. The problem with discrimination, she says, is that "It's usually not on the radar screen until someone brings it to the radar screen." And by that time, much of the public's perception of your company has been damaged.

Keeping Poison at Bay

"You can't rest on your laurels," Hood-Phillips advises. "You have to keep vigilant; the poison can infiltrate at any moment." And while the team is breathing more easily at Advantica, Hood-Phillips said there are still days when she holds her breath. "A misstep, inconsistent service, can always be viewed as discrimination."

"The world is a dark place, people," she says. "Strive to use your talents to bring some light into this dark place."

She warns college graduates considering their futures not to become like circus elephants, who after a few days of being chained in place, no longer try to move even when their shackles are released. "The elephant thinks he can't move," she explains. "The mind and what you believe is a very powerful thing. It will determine who you will be and what you will become. You have an incredible potential both individually and collectively to accomplish great things in your life-time."