Every trainer brings unique life experiences to their presentations—both in style and content. As an expert facilitator for innovation and diversity and inclusion training, Michele Soria shares her unique insight and knowledge with organizations and individuals across the country and abroad.
Michele has not just studied innovation and diversity and inclusion; she has lived them for her entire life. Michele’s mother, a native of Brussels, Belgium, was a survivor of the Holocaust, and her father was from La Paz, Bolivia.
As an educator and administrator for public schools and universities, facilitator for governmental agencies, executive director of an international non-profit, and director of business development for national corporations, Michele perfected her ability to innovate.
She is one of a small group of individuals in the United States certified in Synectics, a creative approach to innovation training that utilizes analogies and metaphors to help analyze problems, gain new insights and reach solutions.
Michele received a master’s degree from Drake University and served as Executive Director of the Iowa Council for International Understanding and as a national senior trainer for the REACH Center for Multicultural/Global Education.
In 2001, Michele led her team at the Iowa Council for International Understanding to develop their International Visitor Leadership Program. Their efforts were recognized with a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. Since then, Michele was named one of Central Iowa’s 10 Women of Influence by the Des Moines Business Record and was given the Outstanding Latino/a Business Person or Entrepreneur Award by the Governor of Iowa.
Michele has trained thousands of people across the United States and abroad on innovation and diversity-related topics. She has 20 years of experience educating professional diversity trainers and is considered one of the country’s most refreshing and thought-provoking trainers.