Velda McRae-Yates, Ph.D., Chief Human Resources Officer

Velda McRae-Yates joined PEM in 2023 as Chief Human Resources Officer after serveing as the director of Enterprise Staffing and Support for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. McRae-Yates has more than 25 years of human resources experience from a variety of environments, including higher education, healthcare, research and development, construction, finance and nonprofit media.

She is adept at strategic visioning, diversity and inclusion, process improvement, performance management, organizational assessments, information systems integration and staff development. At PEM, she works to strengthen the museum’s diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) efforts and enhance the Employee Experience team.

McRae-Yates holds a B.S. in Organizational Behavior and an M.S. in Applied Management from Lesley University, and a doctorate in Organizational Development and Change with a focus on institutionalizing diversity from Union Institute & University. She is also a teacher, consultant and Cornell Certified Diversity Practitioner and serves as board chair for the Affinity Leadership Consortium, a nonprofit group of professional associations of color, and as chair of the Women’s Breakfast Group at the Harvard Club.