Dr. Karmetria Dunham Burton is Senior Director of Global Supplier Diversity and Inclusion for McDonald’s. An executive with over twenty years of experience in HR, supply chain, and diversity, Karmetria has worked for major corporations, including Delta Air Lines, Xerox, AT&T, IHG, and Union Pacific Railroad. Through her work in supplier diversity programs, she has also coached hundreds of entrepreneurs to achieve their business goals.
While Karmetria has rapidly risen in her career, that success didn’t always come easily. She knows what it’s like to be the only Black woman in the room and what it’s like to be betrayed by another Black woman in the workplace. She’s committed to giving other women the tools to handle that reality while also doing her part to reduce those instances when Black women feel like they have to compete with each other for limited opportunities.
As a speaker and mentor, she helps women develop success habits that position them to take on corporate America, the world of entrepreneurship, or both. She openly shares the strategies she’s used to rise to executive leadership with thousands of women each year. Karmetria regularly addresses women’s organizations, professional organizations, entrepreneurship forums, and youth empowerment groups across the country and beyond. She inspires executives and entrepreneurs to become impactful, resourceful, and engaged leaders while giving them the tools to take bold action from that place of inspiration.
A respected authority in supplier diversity, Karmetria is a contributing writer for MBE Magazine, which focuses on minority business development. Her work and her passion have gained her notoriety in several publications, including Black Enterprise, AMOI, and Diversity Inc. Over the course of her career, Karmetria has received several awards for her professional performance, including a Woman of Excellence award by Atlanta Daily World Magazine, recognition as one of the Top 25 Women Impacting Diversity by Diversity Inc. Magazine, and the InfluenceHER Award, for which she was featured in Black Enterprise Magazine.
As the founder of the Paint Your Lips Red Foundation, Karmetria has created a leadership movement. Through her PYLR platform, she reaches thousands of women to encourage, motivate, and empower them to level-up their lives as mothers, wives, leaders, and entrepreneurs. Karmetria collaborates with local and global organizations that serve women who were victims of sex trafficking, provides winter coats for people in need, and provides backpacks and school supplies for economically disadvantaged schoolchildren. In 2017, she hosted the first annual Paint Your Lips Red conference, bringing together more than 500 women.
Karmetria holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Southern University-Baton Rouge, and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska. She also has a doctorate degree in business from Argosy University. Karmetria has served as an instructor at Kennesaw State University, Shorter College, Strayer University, Georgia State University, and Monroe Community College. Topics she has covered as an instructor include supply chain, general business, marketing, professional development, diversity and inclusion, and leadership.
Karmetria is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated and a board member of Southern University College of Business. She is a John Maxwell certified coach, trainer, and speaker and the founder of Women Connecting Through Christ, a prayer group for women across the globe. A native of Houston, Texas, Karmetria is married to Horace A. Burton, who didn’t arrive on anyone else’s timeline and is much more interesting than Prince Charming. Her motto is: “Show up!”