2025 Women of Influence

The Shelby-Griffin Report presents the 20th annual tribute to Women of Influence in the food industry. For 20 years, we’ve honored the outstanding women shaping the food industry—from executives and innovators to mentors and community leaders. This year’s nominees represent a diverse range of roles, backgrounds, and regions, each making a profound impact in their careers and beyond.

Explore their stories below, and join us in celebrating their achievements.

2025 Women of Influence

2025 Women of Influence

Sommer Stockton

Digital Content Editor, Shelby Publishing Co., Inc.

Digital Content Editor Sommer Stockton has made quite an impact in her three years directing Shelby’s online content efforts.

A graduate of Brenau University, which is located practically across the street from Shelby House in Gainesville, Sommer is one of several Peach State natives on staff.

“I love getting to attend events where I can meet and connect with people in the industry who are just as passionate about their companies and brands as I am learning about them,” she says.

“I enjoy reading the content that we share on The Shelby Report, growing my knowledge about the entire supply chain process – from farm to grocery store and all the stops in between. I am looking forward to attending the Sweets & Snacks show in May.”

Summer, who credited her parents and grandfather for supporting her professional journey, is a member of the Women Grocers of America and serves on the NGA Foundation Advisory Board. She also is the New Member Advisor for Mu Chapter of Alpha Gamma Delta.

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2025 Women of Influence

Sonia Hack

VP, Sales Operations, Acosta Group – Crossmark Sales Agency

Sonia Hack leads sales operations for the sales agency headquarter business and dedicated retail teams, driving efficiency, strategic growth and operational excellence. Her role focuses on developing and executing sales and operational plans that align with business objectives to enhance sales effectiveness and performance. Sonia spearheads process optimization initiatives, streamlining workflows and implementing best-in-class sales tools to maximize efficiency across teams. In addition, she oversees financial management, ensuring the allocation of resources through budget oversight, financial analytics and performance tracking. Sonia also supports the sales agency headquarter business and dedicated retail teams, impacting clients across the U.S. and Canada. She leads the adoption of industry-best sales processes, ensuring teams operate efficiently while improving client engagement and customer success. Sonia also leads a team supporting e-commerce services, helping clients optimize retail media, Amazon Fresh and core, content management and digital engagement strategies to strengthen their online presence. By integrating technology and data-driven insights, she helps clients maximize digital sales performance and consumer reach.

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2025 Women of Influence

Stacey Johnson

SVP, Government Relations and Corporate Compliance, Hy-Vee

Stacey Johnson oversees local, state and federal government relations activities for the regional grocer and its subsidiaries. She leads a team who advocates on behalf of Hy-Vee's interests and works with elected officials and lawmakers at all levels on a range of public policy initiatives. Stacey joined Hy-Vee in 2020, bringing more than 25 years of experience in government relations and public affairs. Today, she and her team monitor legislative and regulatory developments, identify specific opportunities or threats to Hy-Vee's operations and develop strategy and action plans to align with business goals. The team plays a critical role in advocating for Hy-Vee's health and wellness operations, which encompass everything from retail pharmacies and nutrition counseling to pharmacy benefits and medical care. Over the past year, she and her team have advocated for increased health care access across Midwestern rural communities, including greater transparency into pharmacy benefit manager practices, which continue to threaten the livelihood of pharmacies across the nation. Outside of Hy-Vee, she serves on multiple boards that focus on community and youth development.

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2025 Women of Influence

Stacey Kegel

Shopper Marketing Manager, The Giant Co.

Stacey Kegel is a kind and collaborative leader who delivers solid impact in her roles. Her experiences in so many functional areas of the business have positioned her as a source of knowledge and expertise that helps drive continuity among organizational change. Her leadership style is collaborative and engaging and she is a mentor of her colleagues.
Stacey worked in three different roles for The Giant Co. in 2024, showing exemplary leadership skills in all of them. For the first eight months of the year, she was the e-commerce growth marketing manager, responsible for growing e-commerce penetration and sales while increasing profitability, including customer retention and re-engagement campaigns. Thanks in part to Stacey's initiatives, The Giant Co. experienced a double-digit increase in e-commerce sales with a customer penetration rate on target and a profitability rate above target.
In September, Stacey was tasked with maintaining business continuity for the e-commerce business, specifically ensuring customer growth was maintained, while training others as the e-commerce functions were absorbed throughout the business.
Stacey took on her current role in November, and has been responsible for leading the monetization team through a challenging transition as the entire team shifted to different roles and new employees were transitioned onto the team.

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2025 Women of Influence

Stacy Arrington

Manager of Hardware Development, Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions

Stacy Arrington is a pioneering leader in retail technology, making significant contributions to the food industry through innovation, mentorship and results-driven performance. She leads one of Toshiba's U.S.-based engineering teams, transforming customer insights into groundbreaking solutions that help food businesses improve speed of service, reduce waste and enhance the customer experience. In 2024, her team launched the MxP Vision Kiosk – an advanced product recognition system designed for small-format food retailers. With more than 20 years of experience in the point-of-sale industry, Stacy is passionate about creating practical, customized solutions for high-volume food service environments. Her deep technical expertise and problem-solving mindset have earned her the prestigious title of Toshiba Master Inventor, with 20 issued patents in the retail space. This past year marked a new chapter in her career as she stepped into a formal leadership role, shaping product strategy while mentoring the next generation of engineers and interns. Stacy is widely respected not only for her technical excellence but for her collaborative spirit and ability to empower others. Whether she's driving innovation or cultivating talent, Stacy continues to shape the future of food retail technology. Her visionary leadership, industry expertise and commitment to customer-focused innovation help her stand out.

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2025 Women of Influence

Stepfanie Barnes

Senior Manager of Pricing Strategy Science, Utz Brands

Joining Utz in 2009, Stepfanie Barnes is a driven professional with a strong work ethic who demonstrates a consistent commitment to her responsibilities and is always eager to learn and grow.
Stepfanie leverages her knowledge to ensure products are labeled correctly and are in full compliance with regulatory standards to guide the product development teams and to assist sales teams in communications with customers.
Stepfanie fosters a collaborative and positive work environment, ensuring all stakeholders are aligned and informed. She is seen as the reliable and consistent go-to subject matter expert. Her combination of knowledge, communication and work ethic makes her an invaluable member of the team.

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2025 Women of Influence

Stephanie Dillon

Director of Merchandising Services, Save A Lot Food Stores

Stephanie Dillon has shown exceptional leadership and execution in transitioning Save A Lot's space management and floor planning software system to Symphony AI. This strategic migration not only saved the company more than $600,000 over the three-year term of the new contract but also demonstrated a remarkable ability to minimize downtime and disruption to ongoing business operations, all within a narrow four-month window of time. Under her guidance, the short lead time transition was delivered on time and within budget. Throughout the transition, Stephanie and her team worked diligently to navigate obstacles, trouble-shoot issues and address Save A Lot Retail Partner questions promptly. She spearheaded training and worked with IT to simplify data migration with minimal impact on daily workflows, protecting the integrity of the company's operations. Her ability to balance cost efficiency, operational continuity and stakeholder collaboration has made a lasting impact on the company. Her efforts exemplify the innovative and solution-oriented leadership that drives success, helping to position the company for continued growth and efficiency in support of Save A Lot retail partners and merchandising teams.

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2025 Women of Influence

Stephanie Reid

President, Chief Operating Officer, Shelby Publishing Co., Inc.

Stephanie Reid, president and chief operating officer, who joined the company in February 2014. Stephanie, who has a journalism degree from Kennesaw State University, says she was “way too ADHD to follow that career path” and instead chose the business side of media. Her first B2B media sales role with a food retailing brand began with Tom Olson, the owner of Food People, in 1994. “Ironically, Tom was a former Shelby sales executive and was also very involved in ROFDA,” she says. “Through the years, I went on to represent Grocery Headquarters (1998-2001) and Supermarket News (2001-14). “The Mitchells and Shelby Publishing have afforded me the most rewarding opportunities of my career. Although the years were many, the roles as a ‘regional sales representative’ were stagnant across the other brands I represented. “Through open doors, confidence in my abilities and leaps of faith, the Mitchells fostered my growth into Shelby’s president and COO and launched my leadership and industry relations roles across our amazing grocery community.” Stephanie, who volunteers in church youth group leadership roles for young women, noted that she could not have been successful without her family. “I’m extremely grateful to my mom, Carol Thom. She supported me leaving a dead-end job in PR to find my way and land in advertising sales and B2B media,” she says. “I’m equally blessed along my journey as a working and traveling wife and mom to my husband of 25 years, Paul, and my two adult children, Joey and Lanie.”

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2025 Women of Influence

Tamara Fleming

Director of Sales, Clorox

Tamara Fleming is a dynamic and results-driven leader with a distinguished career within grocery. She has led sales and customer engagement teams for several CPG companies, including Gillette, P&G and Clorox for the last 18 years. Over the past two years, Tamara has been championing the transformative retail strategy platform "Every Meal Occasion is a Cleaning Occasion." She has spearheaded this initiative within Clorox as a powerful cross-category merchandising strategy in the grocery channel and has presented the concept dozens of times at industry trade events. By bridging food and household essentials categories, she has unlocked new opportunities for shopper engagement, increased basket size and strengthened retailer partnerships. Beyond her commercial success, Tamara is recognized as a champion for people development. She is committed to mentoring and developing talent, fostering a culture of growth and creating opportunities for future leaders. As an active leader in the Women's Employee Resource Group at Clorox, she has played a key role in empowering and advancing women within the organization. Tamara's career, passion for leadership and unwavering commitment to people development set her apart as a true Woman of Influence. She not only shapes the future of the food industry but also inspires and uplifts those around her, leaving an impact on the business and the communities she serves.

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2025 Women of Influence

Taneya Clark

Category Manager, Service Deli-Specialty Cheese, The Giant Co.

Taneya Clark is responsible for developing and maintaining strategic vendor relationships that drive growth through partnerships and innovation.
She often works with many areas of the company to execute business initiatives that help to connect families for a better future, by sharing ideas, product innovation and assortment to strategize and synergize to bring the best products at the best price to customers.  
Taneya believes in the power of partnership and seeks out ways for her team to work with suppliers to benefit the community. She also helps prepare the next generation of leaders. In the past year, Taneya served as a mentor to a meat department team member, a deli category manager and a newly promoted bakery category manager.   
Taneya embodies The Giant Co.'s purpose of connecting families for a better future, giving back to the community by volunteering with the York County Food Bank and Bowl for Kids to support Big Brothers Big Sisters.
In 2024, Taneya was inducted into The Giant Co.'s Legacy Circle in recognition of her dedication and 35 years of service to the organization.

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