Juana Bordas

To find out more about Juana Bordas and her company go to: www.Juanabordas.com or

her company website www.MestizaLeadership.com

Dr. Juana Bordas emigrated to the U.S. from Nicaragua on a banana boat when she was

three. The youngest daughter in a family of eight, she was the first to go to college. She

learned leadership from her hard-working parents especially her mother, Maria, who cooked

food and scrubbed floors in the school lunchroom. Her early years would instill in her a

desire to give back and to assist other Latinas find their place in society.

Upon graduating from college, she joined the Peace Corps and worked in the barrios of

Santiago, Chile assisting women form work cooperatives. Juana later received the Franklin

Williams Award from the US Peace Corps for her life-long commitment to advancing

communities of color.

Juana was a founder and director of Denver's Mi Casa Women's Center recognized as a

national model for women's empowerment. She was the founding President of the National

Hispana Leadership Institute (NHLI). In 2002, she founded the Circle of Latina Leadership.

For her extensive work with Latinas, she was commended by Latina Style Magazine for

creating "a Nation of Latina Leaders"

Her book Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age published by Berrett-

Koehler won the International Latino Book Award for best leadership book. The Power of

Latino Leadership also received the International Latino Book Award and the Nautilus

Award for best indigenous book. The 2 nd edition released in 2023 has the word Ahora! in the

title - (Now or do it now!) signifying that Latinos today are at the crossroads of power and

poised to be leaders of the 21 st Century.

Juana was a contributor to the 2015 NY bestseller Peter Drucker’s Five Most Important

Questions: Enduring Wisdom for today’s leaders. She served as advisor to Harvard's

Hispanic Journal on Public Policy, the Kellogg National Fellows Program, as vice president

of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership and is a trustee of the International

Leadership Association.

Among her awards: the Wise Woman Award from the National Center for Women's Policy

Studies; inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame; The 2019 Life Achievement

Award from the International Leadership Association; and selected one of 100 influential

Latinos by The National Diversity Council. Juana is President of Mestiza Leadership

International (MLI) -- a company that focuses on leadership and diversity. MLI prepares

collaborative and inclusive leaders for our multicultural and global age.