Andrea Reyes Ramirez, PhD
Building Cultural Intelligence, Strengthening Organizational Culture, and Resolving Conflict…Dr. Andrea helps leaders understand themselves and those they lead.
Educational Background & Experience
Dr. Andrea earned her BBA in Management and her MBA with a concentration in Conflict Resolution at Dallas Baptist University. She holds a PhD in Organizational Leadership from the School of Business & Leadership at Regent University. Her dissertation is entitled Acculturation, Cultural Intelligence, and Implicit Leadership Theories.
She has served as an intern for a nonprofit in Washington DC, a University academic advisor, Strategic Planning Research Analyst, and Customer Service Supervisor for a Financial Institution. She has authored a number of publications including the, “Impact of Cultural Intelligence Level on Conflict Resolution Ability: A Conceptual Model and Research Proposal.” Dr. Andrea’s expertise is focused on cultural intelligence (CQ), organizational culture, conflict resolution, and leadership development.
Her Story
Dr. Andrea has a unique story that begins with being raised in a small country town outside of Nashville and attending a college preparatory private academy. This was worlds apart from where she was headed. During her collegiate experience, she felt compelled to work on a church staff in inter-city Dallas where she encountered what she refers to as a cultural crisis. She went from a predominantly Anglo-American middle to upper middle-class income world to a predominantly Hispanic/Spanish-speaking and lower income reality. She recalls going for a photo shoot with a multi-millionaire one morning and meeting up with her Inner-City Dallas students in the evening to only to find out that they had been evacuated from school because of a potential gunman and were grieving the loss of the neighborhood ice cream man who had been gunned down earlier that day. Dr. Andrea struggled with the extremes of her worlds and how the individuals from each struggled when they had any kind of interactions and encounters. She realized then that one of her life purposes was to serve as a bridge between cultural worlds. Being a Mexican American raised in a predominantly Anglo-American environment and serving in a Hispanic community aided Dr. Andrea in understanding some of the miscommunications that can occur specifically between these two cultures. During her MBA and PhD studies, this experiential understanding was deepened by research literature. Therefore, Dr. Andrea is passionate about equipping American business leaders and educators to know how to reach out to the Hispanic community for maximum effectiveness and impact.
“Instead of neutralizing our differences, let’s learn to use them for maximum impact!” – Dr. Andrea