Valeria Cortés

“Our destiny is to create a new world, to reveal a new life, to remember that there exists a frontier for everything except dreams… In history there are no solitary dreams; one dreamer breaths life into the next.” —Sebastião Salgado

I am a leadership educator and practitioner, passionate about leadership for social change in multicultural contexts. I work extensively with post-secondary institutions and with community organizations, designing learning experiences aimed at transforming our way of being, thinking, and doing. I love facilitating experiential learning processes and creating inclusive spaces that enable creative cross-cultural communication, where we can all learn from each other, where synergy is created and where all people feel connected and empowered to take action to enhance their organizations and communities.

As an educator, consultant, and facilitator I have worked with the following organizations:

• Royal Roads University
• University of British Columbia
• University of Victoria
• University of Toronto
• Volunteer Victoria
• Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria
• International Institute for Child Rights and Development
• ArtsReach
• Spectrum Job Search Society
• Guanajuato’s Ministry of Education
• Tecnologico de Monterrey
• Universidad Iberoamericana Leon

My professional experience working with post-secondary institutions in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., gave me opportunities to implement different ways of active learning and whole-systems initiatives: I have facilitated outdoor education and team-building programs,  liberating structures, world cafés, open-space technology, image theatre, forum theatre, arts-based learning, cooperative learning and participatory-based workshops on topics such as conflict resolution, intercultural communication, and group facilitation skills.

As a student affairs professional I developed and coordinated educational programs for undergraduate and graduate students and implemented campus-wide strategies to enhance the student experience.

I have an Engineering degree with a focus on Information Systems, a Master’s in Education from Tecnólogico de Monterrey where I did research in the area of leadership development and social responsibility of students involved in campus organizations, and a M.A. in Leadership Studies from the University of Victoria, my research focused on exploring and documenting the implementation of theatre-based activities as a means of developing systems thinking in leadership development programs.

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