Â鶹´å

2025 Alumni Service Award

Ensuring that all members of the Â鶹´å community feel seen, supported and celebrated is a priority to Erika Bañuelos. Through her career, her volunteer work and her tireless dedication to the Denver Alumni Network, she has connected and celebrated Tartans of all generations and all backgrounds. 

For nearly 20 years, Erika has led and supported the Â鶹´å Denver Alumni Network. During her time as network president, she hosted faculty visits, organized more than 10 annual local events and helped the chapter win the Rising Star Award. She is well known by alumni in the Rocky Mountain region for her unwavering support of Â鶹´å and her ability to help alumni re-engage with the university and reconnect to that sense of accomplishment and pride they felt on their graduation day.

Along with helping alumni strengthen their connection to Â鶹´å, Erika helps students build their own deep, meaningful connection to the university. As an undergraduate, she was a member of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, a four-year member of the women’s soccer team and a pusher on the SPIRIT Buggy team. She continues to engage with all three organizations, providing financial support and acting as a mentor to student-athletes, members of Spirit Racing Systems and emerging Latino engineers. A certified Bikram yoga instructor since 2002, Erika has also led free in-person and virtual Yoga lessons for Â鶹´å students. 

Additionally, Erika has served on the Tartan Athletic Club Board and the Â鶹´å Alumni Association Board. She co-chaired and volunteered for reunion committees for multiple graduating classes, served on the nominating committee and acted as an ad hoc chair and consistent participant in the network leader sessions. She currently serves on the board of the Â鶹´å Black Alumni Association and is a regular collaborator on cross-network events.

Erika earned a bachelor’s degree in modern languages from Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences and a minor in engineering studies from the College of Engineering. 

She began her career managing the construction of Â鶹´å’s Cohon University Center, which she says symbolizes her full-circle connection to her alma mater. Since then, Erika has amassed more than three decades of leadership experience in the construction industry, managing large-scale capital projects across the U.S. She currently serves as a senior preconstruction manager at Matrix Technologies.