Carmen Arce-Bowen is the Chief Operating Officer of The Partnership, Inc., a Boston-based organization focused on attracting, developing, and retaining professionals of color in the region. She also co-chairs the organization’s Executive Council, a group of nearly 80 heads of HR and D&I that convene to share best practices, tackle challenges in the field, and serve as a sounding board to each other.
Prior to joining The Partnership, Arce-Bowen served for over three years as Director of Personnel and Administration in the office of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, overseeing and managing all matters related to high-level personnel transactions in the executive branch. Prior to this role, she served as Project Director of ONE Massachusetts at the Public Policy Institute and trained more than 250 community leaders on issues related to community empowerment and public policy strategy.
Arce-Bowen has served on the boards of MassVote, the Chelsea Collaborative, and Emerge Massachusetts. In 2010, Governor Deval Patrick appointed her to the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women. She currently serves on the board of Buckingham Browne and Nichols School and chairs its newly created Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion committee. She also serves on the board of WBUR, Boston NPR news station.
The Boston Business Journal named Arce-Bowen as one of its 2018 40 Under 40 honorees, a competitive awards program that recognizes Boston’s most promising young professionals. In 2019, Boston executives selected Arce-Bowen to be part of a 10-member cohort representing Boston at the Harvard Business School “Young American Leaders Program” around issues of cross-sector collaboration in the US.
Originally from Mexico, Arce-Bowen graduated with a LL.B from Universidad Panamericana Law School in Guadalajara Mexico, a LL.M from Suffolk University Law School and a MALD degree from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy focusing on International Development - Social and Political Change.
She is the very proud mom of 11-year-old Pilar.
Carmen Arce-Bowen, F08