Alumni Profile: Helping Women Ascend

Melba Tellez, M.S. ’18, founded Mujeres on the Rise

By Gretchen Sanders

Melba Tellez dropped out of high school when she was 16. Today, she’s a marketing manager at Amazon. Her unconventional career path is inspiring women worldwide.

Tellez grew up bouncing between San Antonio and Monterrey, Mexico, in the 1990s. When money got tight in her single-parent household, Tellez went to work instead of class. “College felt out of reach,” she remembers.

By age 19, Tellez had seen ambitious women thriving around her. She wanted what they had: an education. While working full time at AT&T and then Citibank, she earned a GED diploma in 2012, a bachelor’s degree in communications from Texas A&M University-San Antonio in 2017, and a master’s degree in marketing from McCombs in 2018.

“I felt behind when I went back to school and had to play catch-up,” she says. “As a first-generation college student, I made mistakes and figured it out as I went.”

That lonely journey prompted Tellez to start Mujeres on the Rise in 2019. The online platform connects Hispanic women with resources and tools to grow their careers. Services include résumé consultation, career coaching, and access to a community of professional women who can mentor aspiring Latinas.

“Mujeres on the Rise is my way of giving back by providing information I wish had existed when I was starting my education,” Tellez says.

Latinas tend to be underserved and underrepresented in academics and the workplace; they need encouragement from successful professionals who look like them, she says. “We help them overcome feelings of inadequacy, imposter syndrome, and fear of failure,” Tellez says. She donates up to 20% of proceeds from her virtual résumé courses and coaching sessions to nonprofits that support women, such as Latinitas in Austin, which helps girls develop media and technology skills.

Since starting Mujeres on the Rise, Tellez has mentored women across the globe. They want help strategizing career moves or negotiating higher salaries. One recent client secured a new post earning $10,000 more than she made previously. When a stay-at-home mom applied for a corporate job, Tellez helped her prepare for the interview. Most clients are in the early to middle stages of their careers and want to reach the next level. Tellez makes time for them despite her full-time position at Amazon.

“If Mujeres on the Rise makes a difference to one person, then that’s enough for me,” she says.

This article appeared in the summer 2021 issue of McCombs magazine. Click on the link to see the full issue.