Under Pinson, Walmart in the last few years has aggressively shifted its beauty strategy, bringing on thousands of new brands and products in efforts to offer a more modern, differentiated and trend-driven assortment. Many of the retailer's beauty floors have been enhanced with better lighting and tech features. Influencers now participate in campaigns touting Walmart's beauty department.

At Walmart, Pinson was tasked with evolving the beauty department to better compete with online and specialty retailers like Ulta Beauty, at a time when drugstores and legacy mass beauty brands like Olay and Revlon were struggling to retain a young consumer base.

She was known for balancing exclusive offerings from legacy brands with trends like sheet masks sourced from South Korea, a broadened assortment of textured hair products and offerings that would be distinct to Walmart, such as an in-house clean beauty brand called Found.

Pinson worked at Walmart for 29 years, and it was in a sense the family business — her father at one point had worked for the retailer. She started as an hourly cashier at Sam's Club, and worked her way up to the management training program. As a buyer, she held roles across the stationery, sporting goods and pet care department before landing in beauty, where her gut instincts and keen understanding of the Walmart shopper aided her evolution of the department.

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