‘TOP WOMEN IN GROCERY’: DeCA employees listed among best, brightest female leaders in food industry

FORT LEE, Va. – Three female Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) leaders have been chosen by Progressive Grocer as “Top Women in Grocery” for 2022.

Maureen McCarthy, store director at the Fort Bragg North Commissary; Meralie Ervin, DeCA’s Central Area manager of Florida’s Zone 4; and Dr. Theon Danet, DeCA’s chief information officer and executive director of the Information Technology Group are three of 401 selected this year from over 1,100 nominees.

Since 2007, Progressive Grocer’s Top Women in Grocery has recognized the best and brightest female leaders in the North American retail food industry. The winners demonstrate extraordinary achievement in leading innovative corporate initiatives, executing financial and/or strategic objectives, achieving exceptional performance benchmarks, problem-solving acumen and community outreach.

Honorees are recognized in one of three categories – Senior-Level Executive, Rising Stars and Store Managers. This year, for the first-time, DeCA is proud to have an honoree from each of the three categories – McCarthy chosen in the Store Manager category, Ervin in the Rising Star category and Danet in the Senior-Level Executive category.

“I am so pleased to extend my congratulations to Maureen, Meralie and Theon. It’s quite a prestigious honor for them and for DeCA, especially during this challenging year,” said Bill Moore, DeCA director and CEO. “It shows their hard work and achievements are noticed, appreciated and valued by their peers in the grocery business.”

McCarthy began her commissary career in 2006 as a store worker in the RAF Lakenheath Commissary in England. Her career is highlighted by a series of progressively responsible assignments in six different commissaries in Japan, England and throughout the Carolinas.

She has served as the store director at Fort Bragg North in North Carolina since October 2020, having previously held top three management positions at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, and Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan; and Fort Bragg South.

Her strategic outreach and engagement efforts to address food insecurities, healthy food access to military members and education opportunities through the creation of the commissary classroom for stakeholders are a few of her ongoing partnerships with the Fort Bragg community.

Beginning as a sales store checker for the commissary at Worms, Germany, in 1994, Ervin embarked on a long and evolving career with DeCA, and is a two-time “Top Women in Grocery” honoree, receiving this honor previously in 2020.  

She has held multiple assignments throughout Germany, store manager and store director positions in New Jersey and Virginia. Most recently she served as store director for Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida, before moving to the Zone 4 manager position in 2021, where she provides oversight to 11 commissaries in Florida and Georgia doing approximately $220 million in sales annually.

Danet was selected to lead DeCA’s Information Technology Group in October 2020. Prior to joining DeCA, she served eight years with the Defense Contract Management Agency at Fort Lee, Virginia, in several key positions from chief technology officer and chief enterprise architect to deputy chief information officer.

Danet also held federal government assignments to include chief enterprise architect with Army G-1 in the Pentagon; chief enterprise architect with the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia; and IT webmaster for the Military Traffic Management Command at Fort Eustis, Virginia.

As DeCA’s CIO, Danet is responsible for all Agency IT operations supporting over 235 commissaries and 15,000 employees around the globe and was instrumental in accelerating DeCA’s ecommerce rollout to 100 percent completion in six months.

DeCA’s winners were recognized in the June print issue of Progressive Grocer magazine, as well as on progressivegrocer.com. The magazine will further honor the winners at a celebration to be held in Orlando, Florida, in November.

“All of these women are mission-driven leaders who embody the leadership qualities that are moving the Defense Commissary Agency forward – by finding and implementing creative solutions, increasing operational efficiencies and mentoring future DeCA leaders, all while understanding the unique role we play in serving our deserving patrons,” said Moore.

-DeCA-

About DeCA: The Defense Commissary Agency operates a worldwide chain of commissaries providing groceries to military personnel, retirees and their families in a safe and secure shopping environment. Commissaries provide a military benefit, saving authorized patrons thousands of dollars annually on their purchases compared to similar products at commercial retailers. The discounted prices include a 5-percent surcharge, which covers the costs of building new commissaries and modernizing existing ones. A core military family support element, and a valued part of military pay and benefits, commissaries contribute to family readiness, enhance the quality of life for America’s military and their families, and help recruit and retain the best and brightest men and women to serve their country.