Colleen Lindholz, president of Kroger Health, will retire after 31 years with The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), the Cincinnati-based grocer announced Thursday. Lindholz is widely credited with building Kroger's Food as Medicine strategy and the Nourishing Change movement — two initiatives that positioned the retailer's pharmacy and health operations as a clinical-adjacent resource for its millions of weekly shoppers.

From Pharmacist to Division Head

Lindholz began her Kroger career in 1995 as a staff pharmacist in the Cincinnati-Dayton division. Over the following two decades she moved through pharmacy management, coordination, sales promotion, recruiting, and merchandising before being named director of Pharmacy Sales and Marketing in 2013. She was appointed President and CEO of the Little Clinic in 2015 and elevated to president of Kroger Health in 2017 — a unit that today encompasses the grocer's pharmacy network, dietitian services, and in-store clinic operations.

Under her tenure, Kroger Health was named Mass Market Retailer's Retailer of the Year in 2022, and the Kroger Family of Pharmacies earned recognition as a Forbes Best Customer Service Company. Lindholz personally collected a string of industry honors, including listings among Modern Healthcare's top women leaders in 2023 and MMR's Influential Women in 2024 and 2025.

Succession and Strategic Implications

Kroger has not yet announced a successor. The leadership transition arrives at a consequential moment for food-retail health strategy: large-format grocers have increasingly competed with pharmacy chains and primary-care disruptors for preventive-health wallet share, and Kroger's Food as Medicine framework — which links dietary data to chronic-disease management — has been a differentiating asset the company has marketed to health-plan and employer partners.

Mary Ellen Adcock, Kroger's Chief Marketing and Merchandising Officer, credited Lindholz with championing "ways to help families live healthier lives by eating better-for-them foods," a mandate that has grown more commercially significant as insurers and Medicare Advantage plans expand produce-prescription and nutrition-benefit programs. How the next Kroger Health leader maintains momentum on those external partnerships will be watched closely by competitors and industry analysts alike.

Lindholz has served as chair of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) and holds the role of Executive Chair of AHA's Heart Mini. She also chairs the Easterseals Redwood Board of Directors of Greater Cincinnati. She holds a bachelor's degree in pharmacy from the University of Cincinnati.

For broader coverage of health and wellness trends reshaping food retail, see our analysis of nutrition strategy in grocery and in-store health clinic expansion.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.