Juana bordas learned leadership from her immigrant parents especially her mother, Maria, who cooked food and scrubbed floors in the school lunch room so Juana could get a scholarship to a Catholic school. “Their vision for the future, determination, and sacrifice taught me the very essence of Servant Leadership.”
The first in her family to go to college, she joined the Peace Corps and worked in the barrios of Santiago, Chile. Juana later received the U.S. Peace Corps’ Franklin Williams Award for her life-long commitment to advancing communities of color.
Juana was a founder and executive director of Denver’s Mi Casa Resource Center recognized today as a national empowerment model. She was founding President of the National Hispana Leadership Institute, the only program in America that prepares Latinas for national leadership. In 2001, she launched the Circle of Latina Leadership in Colorado “to prepare the next generation of Latina leaders.” For her extensive work with Latinas, she was commended by Latina Style Magazine for creating “a Nation of Latina Leaders.”
A former faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership—the most highly utilized executive program in the world—Juana served as advisor to Harvard’s Hispanic Journal on Public Policy and the Kellogg National Fellows Program. She was vice-chair of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership’s board and a trustee of the International Leadership Association.
Her best-selling book Salsa, Soul and Spirit—Leadership for a Multicultural Age was awarded the 2008 International Latino Book Award for leadership. In 2008, Juana received Denver’s Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Social Responsibility and the Wise Woman Award from the National Center for Women’s Policy Studies. She is in the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame. In 2009 the Denver Post and the Colorado Women’s Foundation named her the Colorado Unique Woman of the Year.
Today, Juana is President of Mestiza Leadership International (MLI)—a company that focuses on leadership, diversity, and organizational change. MLI’S mission is to prepare collaborative and inclusive leaders for our multicultural and global age.
To learn more and to exchange ideas with Juana, contact JuanaBordas.com.