| Ciléia Miranda-Yuen, the founder and chair of the Latino Legacy Project, is the president of the multicultural consulting company Genway International and the founder and executive director of Belas Artes Multicultural Center and Art Gallery a 501c3 non-profit organization that promotes culture-diversity understanding and appreciation through art. The Latino Legacy Project aims to provide insights to the community in order to demystify stereotypes against Latino/Hispanics; to bridge the gap between the Hispanic communities and the community in general; and to promote leadership development among young Latinos. Ciléia embraces multiple leadership roles in the workplace, art-culture-education, and in the community with keen professionalism, visionary spirit, relevant understanding of human consciousness, and charisma.
Ciléia has developed leadership and diversity programs anchored on her knowledge of human relations, decisions, emotions, reactions and sensitivities felt in our changing global environment. Based on her world experiences by having lived and traveled through most continents, she believes that to have real behavior change towards diversity and inclusion, people need to overcome the fear of what is different through understanding and recognize the lens through which they perceive the world. They need to be emotionally open to incorporate change in order to understand each other’s differences, similarities and uniqueness. Respect and appreciation follows this process. To promote this learning, Ciléia uses her knowledge and experience in psychology, personality types, and human consciousness along with the arts as common grounds to expose the audience to various viewpoints. She encourages people to explore the richness of diversity’s multiple expressions and how to use that in order to promote better relationship, creativity, higher productivity, and leadership.
A former Nestle Purina sales and marketing executive, Ciléia was responsible for a number of significant special projects, including the design and implementation of strategy, structure and trade marketing programs. Her responsibility included providing proactive Marketing Intelligence insights of the effects of the market dynamics and trends on the business tied to company’s initiatives. Before leaving Nestle Purina to become an entrepreneur, Ciléia worked in the Marketing Department responsible for product development, marketing penetration, consumer campaigns, and was responsible for the company’s National Hispanic Marketing initiative. Ciléia was member of Nestle Purina’s Diversity Task Force and under her leadership; the company developed its first Latino Leadership Group. She also contributed to the formation of their Women Leadership Group. Prior to Nestle Purina, Ciléia worked as Financial Manager and Executive Director in Organizations with focus on education and environmental friendly alternative energy.
Ciléia’s unique style, leadership, and multicultural expertise have been recognized in the local and national levels. She is the recipient of prizes such as the Most Influential Minority Business Leader Award by the St. Louis Business Journal; Woman in Business Award by the YWCA, The Nestle Best Spirit Award, and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce New Business Entrepreneur of the Year. Her multicultural project at Belas Artes received the US Congress Proclamation for bringing together a multitude of ethnic, cultural and social groups. Ciléia is also the recipient of the “Torch-Bearer Award” given to those who have inspired communities through their own lives and deeds. Ciléia is a graduate of the FOCUS Leadership St. Louis and the CORO Women in Leadership. Ciléia was awarded as the Outstanding Graduate Student of the year upon completion of her MBA in Business at Webster University in 2001. She holds a BA in Economics and certification in MBTI and OTCI – The Organizational and Team Culture Indicator TM.
Embracing causes that are driving forces for the betterment of our community, Ciléia is the liaison among several groups. Her passion in bringing people together is the motivation behind supporting and working to coordinate performing groups at the International Institute’s Festival of the Nations. She is the former Chair of the Hispanic Leaders Group and is directly involved with Casa de Salud, a new health clinic that serves the immigrant population in St. Louis. She is a board director of the Center for Humanity at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and former member of the Multicultural Committee of the Network of Executive Women. Through the diverse groups in St. Louis, Ciléia advocates alliances that strengthen the overall region. She has partnered with the U.N. sponsored World Harmony Runners, several Public Schools, Girl Scouts, America Scores, St. Louis ArtWorks, UMSL, St. Louis University, KETC Channel 9 Network, The Chess Club and Scholastic of St. Louis, the Missouri History Museum, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Art Museum, The US Post Office, the Federal Reserve Bank, and numerous ethnic groups and artists to promote art and diversity education in our region. She also promotes the talents of many local minority artists and performers.
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