A prominent Latina in the corporate world is on the move again. Raquel Tamez, now the former chief executive officer of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), has taken a new position as the chief inclusion and engagement officer at Charles River Associates (CRA).

The Boston-based consulting firm is a world leader in its industry, and provides consulting on matters ranging from economics and energy to forensic services and labor to name a few.

CRA made the announcement on May 5 via an official press release, and Tamez followed up with a post on LinkedIn.

The position of chief inclusion and engagement officer is a new position at the consulting firm, and Tamez will be the first to take the helm. She will do so officially on June 1.

In the role, Tamez will be responsible for leading CRA’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts within the firm itself and in all its collaborative efforts worldwide.

“The importance of DE&I cannot be overstated as it is essential to fostering an engaged and empowered workforce,” said CRA President and CEO Paul Maleh in a press release. “I have no doubt that Raquel will help us strengthen our culture and further align CRA to better serve our clients, stakeholders, and communities.”

In her LinkedIn post, Tamez seconded Maleh’s emphasis on the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion to the future of corporate America and companies like CRA.

“The data is clear: organizations that fully embrace and integrate DE&I into its DNA are more agile, innovative and profitable,” she wrote. 

But while it is necessary, the path to doing it effectively is where real transformation happens.

“It’s also about the journey — and how all of us can evolve and learn along the way,” said Tamez. “I look forward to walking that path with you.”

Before her new appointment, Tamez was chief executive officer SHPE for four years. 

While there, according to her LinkedIn page, SHPE not only gained thousands more members, but launched branches nationwide in ways and in quantity that the organization had never seen before her time in charge. The organization also launched a monthly newsletter, called Oye.

In 2020, Tamez was also the keynote speaker for AL DÍA’s first-ever virtual event, AL DÍA 40 under Forty. There, her message to the future leaders of Philadelphia was to “dare to change the world.”

“You have a chance to leave your mark. Not just on the city, not just on your community, not just on the country, but on the world,” she said, quoting Father Félix Varela.

Prior to SHPE, Tamez held various corporate legal counsel roles for nearly 20 years. She started in law out of St. Mary’s University as a trial attorney and prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Labor. 

She got her B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin in Government, Business, and Spanish.

Tamez is Mexican-American and when reflecting on her journey to the C-suite after being announced to her new role at CRA, she called herself the “the little Mexican-American girl that could.”

She dared to change the world and has, and many more will follow her.