Claudette Soto is the President and CEO of baso, Ltd., a construction management/owner representative/permit coordination firm in the Chicagoland area whose mission is to elevate equitable procurement and meaningful minority and woman owned business participation while delivering projects on time and on budget. In 2022 Claudette launched baso Tecnica, the only Latina owned architectural and structural forensics firm in the Chicagoland area. She has been working in the construction management, architectural, and engineering field for over 20 years. In 2001, while an undergrad at IIT, she started a grassroots organization named VAMOS, that introduced STEAM fields and the language of higher education to underserved middle school students. VAMOS has evolved to also include mentoring and career guidance for first generation university students and architects and engineers who identify as people of color.