Brenda Bocanegra is the Chief People and Culture Officer for the Houston Area Women’s Center.


Brenda will be starting with HAWC on February 19th and brings well-rounded HR knowledge and experience to the organization. She has worked for diverse for-profit and nonprofit workforces in small, mid-size and large organizations. Brenda has led both strategic and operational HR activities to support high growth organizations. She has focused on workforce planning, policy development and implementation, employee engagement, employee relations, payroll, compensation and benefits, professional development, HR automation and other HR functional areas critical to the success of the organization.

She also has experience in development and implementation of new programs to address attrition, retention, employee satisfaction, performance management as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion. A Houston Business Journal Women Who Mean Business nonprofit honoree, Brenda is known as a trusted advisor and solutions-oriented, high-integrity partner. She is an active member of SHRM and HR Houston and is a contributor to HR advisory boards. She is a multilingual, native Houstonian. She graduated from the University of Houston and holds a Master’s of International Business from the University of St. Thomas.

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