A-Side Corporate; B-Side Community: Empire Alumna Tayrin Tapia, Founder of Latinas Evolving, Mixes Both

Empire State University alumna Tayrin Tapia ‘20 is the founder of Latinas Evolving, LLC. It began at a former corporate job where Tapia constantly felt sidelined, working hard to make her ideas heard to no avail. The business professional channeled that frustration into creating a welcoming space where people can thrive—one that now includes a magazine publication featuring Latinas and Latinos and whose readership spans eight states.

Puerto Rico-born Tapia was raised in New York City and later moved to Buffalo, where she currently resides. She graduated from SUNY Empire in 2020 with an associate degree in business administration, management, and economics, finding her turning point in 2022 when she founded the Buffalo-based for-profit organization Latinas Evolving. Four years later, it has expanded from a single panel discussion into biannual bilingual magazine issues, community events, and even a $25,000 grant-funded rebrand.

Tapia mentions starting the organization “at a point in my life when I felt very unheard and unseen. Every idea that I was giving, any new thing I was trying, it was all shut down.” It made her think back to a previous role at the Belle Center, where she focused on workforce development—in recruiting and in her field, there never seemed to be enough bilingual, culturally representative professionals. Looking back further to 2017, Tapia had started the Buffalo chapter of the nonprofit “Lean in Latinas,” naming it something similar to her current organization. When Latinas Evolving came along, she began to see that the idea for it had been forming all along.

Her time at Empire provided a sturdy foundation for Tapia, who was working full-time and raising two sons as she completed her degree. For the alumna, “the flexibility, the ability to still do my day job,” made all the difference. She recalls an observation made by one of her professors that single mothers show the most hunger to finish their degrees. This resonated with Tapia. “I found that extremely powerful,” she says, seeing now how this ties into the mission of Latinas Evolving.

Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, Tapia’s job at the Belle Center was affected by layoffs. By that September, Tapia had filled a director of operations opening in a Spanish-speaking department at Capital Management Services. In November of 2023, she transitioned to a chief compliance officer role at another organization, and as of June 2025, Tapia has been a business support manager in corporate sustainability at HSBC. “It’s extremely aligned with who I am as a person,” she comments about her current work. Parallel to her corporate career arc, Tapia successfully built an organization—she didn’t have to give up one for the other.

In October of 2022, Tapia hosted a panel called “Latinas of Power and Influence” with a turnout of 80 attendees. The traction snowballed into other projects, including a social media campaign that highlighted local Latina entrepreneurs through magazine cover edits. People began asking Tapia, “Is this really a magazine? Because if it is, where can we get it?” Running with this feedback, she began publishing LE Magazine annually, then biannually. The most recent iteration of the publication is like a cassette tape: one side for Latinas—flip the magazine, and readers get another side dedicated to Latinos. Looking ahead, she hopes to launch issues of LE Magazine quarterly.

The reality of what a powerful community Tapia built hit her hard when she applied for a Springboard NY and Ralph C. Wilson Jr. grant one morning at 6 a.m.—half on a whim, half out of instinct. She was thrilled when Latinas Evolving was awarded $25,000 that funded the organization’s website, rebrand, and expanded programming. It was a game changer.

Many lives have been impacted by Tapia’s work at Latinas Evolving. Among them is Rebeca Fong-Reynolds, who had struggled to find a space that felt welcoming to her as someone with both Latino and Asian heritage. Fong-Reynolds attended an event series that spotlights local Latino-owned businesses called “Cafecito Tempranito con Tayrin,” which opened the door to exposure for her small business, Ernie’s Pop Shop.

The “why” of Tapia’s efforts becomes evident through a statistic that shocked her when she first heard it, even as she felt its truth. Tapia quotes the American Express 2020 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report: “Latina-owned businesses are one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. economy, outpacing overall women-owned businesses growth.” Despite this growth, “we are still underrepresented—not as visible or acknowledged,” she says. It is the feeling that isolated her before founding Latinas Evolving, when being heard or valued at work was a struggle.

Through Latinas Evolving, Tapia has reached across the state of New York and beyond to connect Latinas seeking community in the business world. She hopes to continue creating opportunities to uplift these business leaders and foster community.