100 Latinas 2026 – The Latina leaders redefining influence across business policy, and culture
Laura Murillo often describes her life through three words: people, passion, persistence. They are not a phrase she adopted after success arrived, but a framework she has carried with her since childhood, long before leadership titles or national recognition became part of her story. Those words explain how a daughter of Mexican immigrants raised in Houston’s barrio built a career defined not simply by achievement, but by service, resilience, and an enduring commitment to creating opportunities for others.
Murillo grew up as the youngest of nine children in a family where work was not an abstract value but a daily reality. Her parents had crossed the Rio Grande as teenagers with little more than determination, and over time they built a life rooted in responsibility to family and community. From the age of ten, she worked alongside them in the family restaurant, learning early that contribution was expected and that dignity was closely tied to effort. Those years shaped her understanding of leadership long before she would ever use the word to describe herself.
As a child, she was curious and observant, and she remembers knowing even then that she wanted to do something meaningful, something connected to helping people. She loved reading, she was drawn to communication and storytelling, and she paid close attention to the way her parents treated others with respect and generosity. Without realizing it, she was absorbing lessons that would later guide every major decision she made.
“As a child, she was curious and observant, and she remembers knowing even then that she wanted to do something meaningful, something connected to helping people.”
When she graduated from high school, Murillo received admission letters from Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. For many students, those opportunities would have marked the beginning of a journey far from home. For her, the moment became something else entirely. Her parents believed she should remain in Houston, close to family and close to the community that had shaped her. Their perspective reflected the same values that had guided them throughout their own lives. Murillo listened, and she chose to attend the University of Houston, the institution she still describes as her home away from home.
At the university she found mentors who recognized her potential early and encouraged her to take on responsibilities that stretched her confidence and expanded her perspective. She worked in student services, later in fundraising and external relations, and with each new role she developed a deeper understanding of how institutions function and how relationships sustain them. Promotions followed regularly, but what mattered most to her was the growing sense that leadership was rooted in trust rather than visibility.
There were moments along the way, however, when her confidence was tested in ways she did not expect. While applying to a doctoral program, one professor questioned whether she belonged there at all, pointing to her responsibilities as a working professional and young mother as reasons she might struggle to succeed. For a moment, she allowed herself to wonder whether he might be right. Then she thought about her parents and everything they had endured so that their children could have choices they themselves never had. That reflection shifted her perspective. She applied, she stayed, and she finished.
During that period of her life, Murillo balanced full-time work, full-time doctoral studies, and the responsibilities of raising her daughters. She prepared for one of the most demanding exams in her program while pregnant with her second child and while her mother was hospitalized after suffering a massive heart attack. It would have been understandable to pause. Instead, she continued forward. Only four of forty candidates passed the statistical analysis examination that year. She was one of them, and her mother lived long enough to watch her receive her doctorate.
Soon afterward she accepted a leadership role at the Texas Medical Center, becoming the highest-ranking Latina working there at the time. The position exposed her to a new scale of institutional responsibility and confirmed her ability to navigate complex environments that required both strategy and collaboration. Yet the transition that would ultimately define her professional life arrived unexpectedly through her involvement with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Murillo had been serving on the chamber’s board during a period of instability when leadership turnover had left the organization searching for direction. At one meeting, members openly discussed whether the chamber should continue operating at all. Not long afterward, she was asked to consider becoming its president and chief executive officer. Her first response was hesitation. She had a career she valued and a role she understood. Accepting the position meant stepping into uncertainty at a time when the organization itself was still finding its footing. What persuaded her to reconsider was not the challenge alone, but the possibility she could see beyond it. She believed the chamber could become something more influential and more relevant than it had ever been before.
The first years were demanding and required difficult decisions about governance, structure, and long-term direction, but they also allowed Murillo to reimagine what the organization could represent. Drawing on her background in communications, she proposed creating a television presence for the chamber in mainstream media so that stories about Latino leadership and entrepreneurship could reach broader audiences. The idea was initially met with skepticism, yet she continued to advocate for it until the chamber secured its own program on CBS, becoming the only nonprofit organization in the market with that distinction. Radio programming followed, along with Spanish-language outreach platforms and a CEO roundtable that brought together leaders across industries for conversations about economic opportunity and regional growth.
Equally important to her was the creation of the Emerging Leaders Institute, a program designed to prepare younger professionals for leadership roles by connecting them with mentors, networks, and opportunities that might otherwise remain out of reach. Over time the institute has helped hundreds of participants advance their education, strengthen their careers, and expand their influence within their communities. For Murillo, these outcomes represent the most meaningful measure of institutional success.
Throughout these years she was also raising her daughters as a single parent, an experience she describes as the most important responsibility she has ever carried. She speaks about their achievements with pride, but more than that, she speaks about the journey they shared together and the values they learned as a family. The girls graduated from Columbia University & Georgetown, accomplishments that Laura holds dearly. One daughter pursued studies in astrophysics and mechanical engineering and now contributes to work connected to planetary science and NASA. The other entered public service at an early age and later worked on national policy initiatives within the White House. Their paths reflect the same belief Murillo inherited from her own parents: that opportunity expands when someone is willing to invest in you.
Her leadership has since extended far beyond Houston through service on corporate boards, participation in national advisory roles connected to the Federal Reserve, and involvement with organizations shaping the future of business, education, and civic life. Each of these experiences has reinforced her conviction that representation matters and that leadership carries responsibility not only to succeed individually but to create space for others to succeed as well.
Today, as she approaches two decades leading the chamber, Murillo continues to devote her time to mentoring young professionals, speaking to emerging leaders, and strengthening the networks that connect communities across industries and generations. She often reflects on the people who encouraged her along the way and on how their confidence shaped her own willingness to take risks she might otherwise have avoided. Their example continues to guide her work.
For Murillo, leadership has never been defined by position alone. It has always been defined by purpose, by the relationships that sustain institutions, and by the belief that progress becomes meaningful only when it opens doors for others.
“And when she reflects on the path that brought her here, she returns, as she always does, to the same three words that have guided her from the beginning: people, passion, persistence.”
And when she reflects on the path that brought her here, she returns, as she always does, to the same three words that have guided her from the beginning: people, passion, persistence.
As published by Latino Leaders Magazine https://issuu.com/latinoleadersmagazine/docs/llv27n2_march-april/39