Embrace Employee Spotlight: Sarah Tavares and Raul Villarreal

There’s a lot to love about Embrace Home Loans, but one of our strongest assets has always been our employees. We have teammates who have been with us for 10, 20, even 30+ years. And we’ve also been hiring new employees at a furious pace recently.
In this Employee Spotlight, we’ll be featuring two Embrace teammates — one new employee, and one employee who has already been with us for a while. Each will give different perspectives on the Embrace experience and a little more personal info so you’ll be able to get to know them better.
Want to nominate someone to feature in a future spotlight? Email Mary Mack at [email protected]
RAUL VILLARREAL, Branch Development Manager
What is your official title and what do you do at Embrace?
Branch Development Manager. I handle the recruitment of Processors and Underwriters across our three platforms and work closely with the hiring managers, HR, and our Director of Recruiting, Patrick Mullen, to help develop strategies to attract top talent to Embrace.
What made you want to work at Embrace?
It was a combination of things. After years of being in sales, I was looking to make a career change and transition into recruiting and saw the opportunity here, and after speaking with some members of the team and hearing them speak about the culture I knew it was the perfect fit.
What also resonated with me was how long a lot of people have worked here. While looking through LinkedIn, I saw that many of the employees who have been at Embrace have worked here for 10+ years. Some even 20+ years. People don’t stay that long at a company if it’s not a great place to work.
How has it been starting a new job at Embrace?
It’s been great! I had my concerns about starting remote, however, Embrace did a tremendous job making sure I had everything I needed. I am in the office now a couple days a week and it’s been the perfect balance for me. It’s been great to connect with people across different departments and everyone has made me feel welcomed. I missed being in an office so it feels good to come in a few days — but it is also nice to have that flexibility and work from home.
What did you do for a living before you came to Embrace?
I was an Account Executive at MOO in Providence for 4.5 years. MOO is an online print and design company and my role there was to acquire and onboard new business clients across the country. MOO was a great company to work for. I still stay in touch with a lot of people from there.
We’d love to get to know you a little better! Tell us about yourself.
In my free time, I like to play soccer and volleyball whenever I can. I’ve played both sports for years and still play a couple times a week. I was born and raised in Rhode Island and graduated from the University of Rhode Island. I live in Pawtucket with my fiancé and our dog, Brady. We’re high school sweethearts and are actually getting married in two weeks. Our family is also growing as we are expecting our first child in December, so it’s been quite an exciting year.
SARAH TAVARES, Closing Officer Team Leader
What is your official title and what do you do at Embrace?
I am a Closing Officer Team Leader and I currently manage the closing team that services our Mid-Atlantic Region.
How long have you worked for Embrace?
I just hit six years on August 17th!
What made you want to work at Embrace?
Prior to Embrace, I worked at Target for seven years and graduated from Rhode Island College in 2013. I stayed at Target for a couple of years after I graduated and then decided I wanted to pursue a career change and learn something new! A family member of mine told me about an opening in Compliance at Embrace, so I had an interview with Peter Microulis and the rest is history!
What’s one of your favorite Embrace memories?
I would definitely have to say one of my favorite memories is when someone approached me and asked if Mike Manley was my dad — LOL For those of you who don’t know Mike, he was our previous Closing Department Manager and is now living that retirement life!
How was it working from home for most of this year?
It was great working from home but once we were allowed to come back to the office last year, I started coming in every day again. I currently work in both the Middletown and East Providence offices.
We’d love to get to know you a little better! Tell us about yourself.
I grew up in Rehoboth, MA and I bought my first house in Bristol, RI back in December of 2019. Outside of work you can either find me taking photos of sunsets down at Colt State Park or I’m playing/watching some type of sport. Right now I’m playing volleyball and flag football — I love to stay active!