How Rosie Fasano’s 31-year journey at Walgreens led to her favorite role yet

Meet the Walgreens “Swiss Army knife” keeping 400+ New York stores safe and comfortable for customers and team members.

My name is Rosie Fasano and I am the Store Care manager in Region 35, which covers the state of New York. My team handles behind-the-scenes operational needs for our stores like cleaning, maintenance and safety, so store team members can focus on helping customers and patients. I’ve been with Walgreens for 31 years in many different roles, and after two years in this role, I’d say it’s my favorite so far. 

It’s been a long journey for me at Walgreens, starting with what was supposed to be just a college job while I finished my business degree at Pace University in New York. Now, my regional vice president calls me a Swiss Army knife because I’ve done almost every position relating to our stores. From customer-facing roles like service associate and pharmacy technician to regional support roles in cosmetics, training, asset protection and implementation, I’ve seen a lot.  

Through it all, what keeps me at Walgreens is the people. I’ve been fortunate to work for some great people who saw potential in me and helped me evolve in each of my roles along the way.

How I care for more than 400 stores across New York state

I work a hybrid schedule each week, where part of my time is spent visiting stores in the field, part is spent at our regional office and part is spent working from home. On a normal day, I’ll wake up, get ready and spend a little time with my family and our dog, then do a quick check of work orders from my computer before I leave for the day.

I manage reactive “handyman” work orders like broken floor tiles or key-lock-door issues. I also work with our Store Care program managers while in the field by evaluating maintenance work orders like window cleaning and landscaping. On store visit days, I’ll connect with our service vendors who may be on site, assess their work and make sure the stores are functioning smoothly and look the best they can for our customers.

I spend some time on store visits training our store managers and field leaders on how to be my eyes and ears to help evaluate and manage work when I’m not there. I’m able to visit about half the stores in my region each year, so we need to work together to keep the stores in good condition for customers and team members.

The days I’m in the office or my home office are the days for conference calls and computer work. Beyond the day-to-day responsibilities, I’m on a couple different work groups like our vendor recognition team and our store care engagement team. I also co-chair our Region 35 Women of Walgreens business resource group.

Store Care can get a little hairy once in a while when navigating urgent needs, usually related to weather events. I’ve handled calls late in the evening when there’s snow or torrential rain and we’re dealing with late snowplows or flooding in the area.

In the summer, it can be making sure air conditioning is keeping up with outdoor temperatures of up to 105 degrees. Even with all the moving parts and surprises, it’s rewarding to be the face of Store Care in my region, keeping the stores safe and comfortable for both customers and team members.

Giving 110%, at work and at home

My personal motivation is simple: to just always do my best. When I can go to bed at night and know that I put 110% in, that feels good to me. I care about what I do, and I don’t want to let people down, not at work and not at home.

For my home life, that includes my husband, our two teenaged daughters and our husky dog, Skye. We enjoy going to the beach and visiting the Jersey Shore often. When we can, I love to do tropical vacations, too, like our recent cruise to the Bahamas. Anywhere there’s warmth, water and sand, that’s my ideal vacation.

Personally, I love everything outdoors and that means I love our summers. Walking outside and doing yard work is how I decompress. I also enjoy Pilates and shopping, two things I can do year-round, too. 

I like to do volunteer work and give back to the community. I’m a Girl Scout troop leader for one of my daughters, and as a family we’ve participated in events like homeless outreach, the Great American cleanup and donation drives. At work, we’ll be participating in the Making Stride for Breast Cancer Walk in October.

I feel lucky to have the job and the life that I have and try to always show up well and with a good heart behind everything I do.