Michele Soria- Master Facilitator

Michele has not just studied innovation/creative problem-solving and diversity/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.

 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 (ICIU) and as a national senior trainer for the REACH Center for Multicultural/Global Education.

 Michele has trained hundreds of global leaders from six continents in fields such as government, the media, the arts, and business. These participants were recommended by their embassies through the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program.

 In 2001, Michele led her team at ICIU 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 is a refreshing and thought-provoking trainer who has inspired thousands of people across the United States and abroad on innovation/creative problem-solving and diversity/inclusion-related topics. In addition, Michele has more than twenty years of experience in educating and certifying professional diversity trainers.