PROVIDENCE – Significant leadership changes are occurring with the Center for Women & Enterprise, including at its Rhode Island chapter.
In an emailed note to the community sent Thursday, Lindsay Ramirez said she will leave the local women’s business support organization Friday after becoming CWE Rhode Island’s director
back in June 2023. Ramirez also noted in her letter that CWE Rhode Island Program Manager Maria Bueno, and CWE/Women’s Business Center directors in Boston, Worcester, Mass., Vermont and New Hampshire are also departing from the organization on Friday.
Ramirez did not immediately respond Thursday to questions from Providence Business News as to why she is leaving; however, her note said this transition happened “sooner than expected.”
Ramirez’s business expertise includes software development, teaching, corporate finance, regulatory affairs and entrepreneurship. Her career began in 2015 as an English teacher for American University in Thailand before becoming a frontend developer for Barcelona-based technology company Zendama. Just before joining the Center for Women & Enterprise, Ramirez founded the travel buddy app company Linktrip in New York in 2017.
In her note, Ramirez looked back fondly in her time leading CWE Rhode Island regarding the people she met and for the “collective impact” the organization has made. Ramirez said in leaving that she feels “deep appreciation, mixed emotions and some relief.”
Ramirez noted that the Women’s Business Center, in particular CWE Rhode Island, had several challenges exist “long before the new [federal] administration,” but did not immediately respond to questions asking what those challenges were. However, she said, these issues “have only accelerated,” and called for “urgent need for foundational changes to systems that are unsustainable and unjust” for women and underserved communities.
“As someone committed to women’s empowerment, I understand the risks of speaking out - especially in times like these,” Ramirez said. “We know that meaningful change doesn’t come from maintaining the status quo or staying silent, especially when challenging systems built on inequity. Everyone’s role in this movement matters, and the contributions we each make, when combined, run deeper than what is often seen. Every experience and encounter during my time at CWE has reinforced my belief that with perseverance, courage and the right support - anything is possible.”
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on X at @James_Bessette.
