Page 54 - BusinessWest October 27, 2021

Women
IMPACTA PROGRAM OF BUSINESSWEST
WOMEN
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WOMEN WOMENof Impact
She’s an
Entrepreneur, Public
Servant, Mentor, and
True Role Model
By George O’Brien
o effectively convey the depth of Tracye Whitfield’s impact within the community, one should probably start with her business cards — as in the plural.
She carries three of them. Sort of.
She usually has only one on her, and that’s for the job she started just four months ago — as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer for the town of West Springfield. That’s a new position, and in it, she’s essentially starting from scratch and drafting the blueprint for a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Department, an assignment she describes with the single word ‘difficult’ (much more on that in a bit).
But she also has a business card identifying her as an at-large city councilor in Springfield — she said she had
to make it herself; the city does not supply them — and another one explaining that she is a principal with T&J Tax and Credit Savers, the most recent iteration of a small business she started seven years ago.
“Whatever you learn, bring it forward to the next person so they can learn it, too. That’s how we’ll maintain a culture of togetherness and just helping one another. And we’re all far better off when we can do that.”
Together, these business cards tell a compelling story. It’s about a single mother who started working at a call center in the late ’90s because it was a way to get more doors to open for her, including the one at MassMutual, where she would become inspired — and receive the tuition reimbursement — to earn first a bachelor’s degree in business administration and finance and then a master’s in accounting and taxation, both at American International College.
She would use those degrees to launch her own tax business — one she has built steadily over the years — and eventually move on to different career challenges, including one as director of Business Development for the Training and Workforce Options (TWO) program operated by Springfield Technical Community College and Holyoke Community
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Tracye Whitfield
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, Town
Women of Springfield Public Schools.
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of West Springfield; It was while in that job that Whitfield realized many constituents were missing out on resources and program
IMPACT
College, and, well before that, as a finance analyst for
Whitfield
Continued on page 56
Women of IMPACT IMPACT A PROGRAM OF BUSINESSWEST
A PROGRAM OF BUSINESSWEST Women of Springfield City Councilor
54 OCTOBER 27, 2021