Faculty Directory
Maria Guajardo is a lecturer at the University of Colorado, Denver, and CEO of MG Leadership Design, a leadership consultancy for transformative change. She is Professor Emeritus at Soka University, Japan. Previously serving as Dean and Vice-President, with the distinction of being the first female and first non-Japanese in leadership roles at Soka University. Her consulting, scholarship, and public speaking connect global leadership, dialogic learning, and value-creating education. Her work in diversity, equity, and inclusion has taken her from Malaysia to Mumbai, and from Singapore to South Africa. A published author, her chapter, Dialogic Mentoring as a Pathway for Exploring Class, Race, and Ethnicity, was recently published in Rethinking Mentorship in Early Childhood Education and Care (Pytka and Kelly, Eds., 2026). She also recently published the edited book, Global Leadership for Equity and Inclusion in Education (Routledge, 2025). A clinical psychologist, she has degrees from Harvard and the University of Denver.
Areas of Expertise
Leadership: global, women, global citizenship; Dialogic Learning; Critical Pedagogy
Education, Licensure & Certifications
- University of Denver, Ph.D.
- University of Denver, M.A.
- Harvard University, A.B.
Resumes/CV:
Awards
- University of Denver, Lifetime Achievement Award
- Soka University, Japan, Achievement Award of Highest Honor
- Colorado Women's Hall of Fame
Affiliations
Soka University, Japan, Professor Emeritus
Faculty by Program
- Applied Behavior Analysis
- ASPIRE to Teach
- Counseling
- Couple & Family Therapy
- Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Education
- Early Childhood Education
- Human Development and Family Relations
- Leadership for Educational Organizations
- Learning Design & Technology
- Learning, Developmental & Family Sciences
- Literacy Education
- Research & Evaluation Methods
- School Psychology
- Special Education
- STEM Education
- Teaching