Amalia Alarcón Morris, Associate

Amalia Alarcón Morris has 25 years experience in cross-cultural community building with an emphasis on intercultural communication, organizational development and strategic planning. She has extensive experience working with Latino, African American, American Indian, and Asian and Pacific Islander as well as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and disability leadership in both mono- and multi-cultural settings. Amalia's talent lies in her ability to unify people from diverse cultures, backgrounds and disciplines to work together towards common goals. As a bilingual, bicultural Latina she is able to work fluidly in both English and Spanish and within many cultural contexts. She believes that having fun is an integral part of any learning process and incorporates humor in all her work.

Amalia currently works with the City of Portland where she oversees initiatives intended to promote shared governance while integrating the City's civic engagement system. Amalia's work continually teaches her that integration, whether at the national, local or corporate level, is a two-way street and can only succeed where there is willingness to power-share and true leadership development and mentoring involving both those who are new to a system and those who manage it.

Some of Amalia's clients include the State of Oregon, Multnomah County, McKenzie River Gathering Foundation, and the Latino Network.

Personal/Professional Philosophy: That we are all teachers and we are all learners. That this type of work is a journey, not a destination, and we can (and do) make mistakes at any point along the way. And that - although painful - those mistakes can sometimes teach us more than our successes.

A Favorite Book: De Amor y Sombra by Isabel Allende.

Lessons Learned: Perseverance is key: when things are hardest is when I have to hunker down and keep working through, despite any instinct to flee. To do this, self-care is critical. Having a network of wise and supportive family, friends and colleagues helps to keep me grounded. Without them I could not do this work.