Cori Whitacre-Young is a versatile, well-rounded Human Resources leader with over 25 years of expertise with high growth and complex companies. She has a strong focus in talent acquisition, management and assessment, employee engagement, organizational design, training and professional development, compensation and benefits, and labor relations.

While serving as Vice President of Talent Management with Penn Entertainment for over 15 years, Cori was responsible for developing comprehensive talent strategies across the Company, including talent development and retention, talent acquisition and management strategy, organizational design, succession planning, and performance management, and employee relations and engagement. With a strong focus on building internal bench strength, she was also responsible for the successful design of the Company’s first talent and succession planning process, which identified and developed high potential leaders (property and corporate), ultimately increasing internal promotions by over 20%. 

Cori has also served as a trusted advisor to property executives and corporate leadership regarding talent strategy, organizational change initiatives, coaching, and team building. The extensive work in these areas were contributing factors to Penn Entertainment being named a top Employer of Choice by Bristol/Spectrum’s annual gaming survey over the past several years, influencing the Company’s high engagement scores that continually exceeded broader industry trends and benchmarks.   

Cori holds a Bachelor’s degree from Southeast Missouri State University with a Master’s degree in Education and Counseling from the University of West Georgia.