Lynette Correa-Velez
Have you ever been met with rejection after rejection after rejection? Oftentimes, it can be a hit for your self-esteem and confidence, leaving you feeling like there’s something wrong with you. But in Lynette Correa-Velez’s case, that couldn’t have been more opposite. Instead of questioning her skills and capabilities, she decided to “lean into her light” and turn her problem into purpose. Realizing her rejections had more to do with her intersecting identities as a Woman of Color and working mom than her qualifications, she launched Pagame Project, an AI-powered platform to empower women in their career journeys and close the gender wage gap. Currently, in the Beta stage with a hard launch coming in October, Pagame Project plans to help women with salary negotiation, resume revamping, and cover letter creation, and provide career sponsorship to help keep users accountable in their career pursuits.
Here, we talk with Equal Pay Chicago Coalition, Steering Committee member, Lynette Correa-Velez about the meaning of the Pagame Project, its importance, and what we can expect.
Tell me about yourself.
My name is Lynette Correa-Velez and I am the founder and CEO of the Pagame Project. Pagame is the literal Spanish translation for “pay me.” The Pagame Project is an artificial and human intelligence hybrid-powered career development tech platform based here, in Chicago, Illinois. We seek to close the women's wage gap in the United States and globally. Currently, we’re developing, in Beta, our proprietary Gen AI career coach named Rita AI.
I named it Rita AI after my mother. My mom, Rita Valentine Correa, was a fierce Puerto Rican from the Bronx, New York City. She was an essential health care worker in the Boston, Massachusetts medical district for over 30 years, and unfortunately, became an ancestor in November of 2022 due to ovarian cancer. My mother was very unapologetic about who she was and was far ahead of her time. I've never known her not to wear multiple hats. She was a working mom who co-raised me and my three younger siblings with my dad for the first nine years of my life and loved being the financial decision-maker of the household. My parents divorced when I was 16, and she empowered us to be fierce and ambitious. My mother reminded us that we were not bossed, we were the boss, and I always appreciated that about her.
What inspired you to create the Pagame Project?
So, it's personal, professional and academic. I identify as a practitioner, scholar, and social engineer. Some of my academic and professional background include some doctoral training in DEI and education focusing on Human Resource Development at the University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign (U of I). I also received my Master’s in tech, specifically in e-learning for workplace learning and training from U of I. I completed my undergraduate studies at Lesley College, now called Lesley University, in my home state of Massachusetts. There, I majored in business management with a minor in psychology. I also have over 20 years of professional experience in career coaching. I'm a former corporate banker, and a second-generation financial literacy advocate, and I've worked in corporate nonprofit and higher education. So, while I’m very fortunate to have been able to maneuver between those industries, I still have proximity to the problem of being underpaid, overworked, and always a finalist for positions.
In February of 2024, I was a finalist for a position that I thought I had in the bag for the umpteenth time, for the umpteenth company, within five years, and I did not get the position. So, I thought to myself, that if the research shows that all women are paid 81 cents per $1, Black women are paid 63 cents per $1, and Latina/x women are the least paid of all men and women in general, on average 51 cents per $1, then I couldn't be the only one going through this. Especially, as a Woman of Color, a working mom, and all my other intersecting identities. That night, I turned my anger into an LLC, and that was how the Pagame Project was born.
I've been quietly working on my dream for the past year. In March, I plan on doing a soft launch and will hopefully do the hard launch in October.
What can we expect from the Pagame Project?
The goal of the Pagame Project is to assist all women in the U.S. for now–our second phase will be global–with Rita AI being a culturally affirming Gen AI career coach. Some of the career coaching topics include salary negotiation, resume revamp, cover letter creation, LinkedIn review, and LinkTree creation. It is targeted towards entry-level to C-suite professionals.
A lot of times, we don't have the opportunity to invest in ourselves, to apply for the position that we deserve, to document or write down how we're going to increase our earnings in the workplace, and Rita AI will help with those things. It will also have a gender pay calculator and either a neuroscience-based or maybe Myers Briggs-based career assessment and will also connect female-identified subscribers to a career sponsor. So, kind of like a career sponsor matchmaker.
In my research, I have found that women, especially Women of Color, are over-mentored and under-sponsored. So, the goal is to assist the subscriber with a career sponsor, however, she wants to pivot to her next opportunity. Whether it be in corporate, nonprofit, higher education, government, K to 12, or maybe she wants to go back to school or start a business. Rita AI will conduct a profile assessment and from there, match users with either a human career coach or a human executive coach who will keep the subscriber accountable for their next steps.
Pagame Project will also have live events. We plan to hold monthly group networking events by region. There will be quarterly master classes facilitated by female-identified leaders (hopefully some celebrities will be in attendance) from various industries. And an annual global Pagame virtual summit where these topics can be discussed on a higher scale.
What are some of your own expectations for the Pagame Project?
I’m hoping we can be a small part of the solution that can have a big impact. There are other organizations and competitors out there, but there are also channel partners that I’m hoping to partner with in the near future. I have a certificate in collaborative leadership and believe in the power of partnerships. My dream is to partner with Moms First. They are a policy and research arm within this space of working mothers or moms, in general, attaining support in the workplace and beyond. I’m hoping that Women Employed (WE) can be a potential channel partner.
And I'm going to dream big. Taraji P. Henson and America Perrera, as well as allies like John Leguizamo, have been very vocal about how much they are not being paid. So, I am hoping they can be brand ambassadors. They are very passionate about this topic, and I imagine they would be in alignment with our mission.
Why is the Pagame Project so important, especially today?
The U.S. is going through some interesting times. DEI is under attack, and women are a part of it. We experience not only gender discrimination, but gender pay inequality in the workplace. I think there's no better time than now for Pagame Project to be a support for all women, and provide that hope and connection to one another. It's within our collective power that we'll be able to overcome the unfortunate circumstances happening in the U.S. workplace.
Where can people learn more about the Pagame Project?
Our website is www.pagameproject.com. People are also more than welcome to reach out to me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/lcorreavelez. I am easily accessible and happy to chat further. More now than ever, we’re being forced to be invisible. So, I am very grateful for the Equal Pay Chicago Coalition and what they are doing to help raise awareness and increase that visibility.