Maria Drueco, IPMA-ACP
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Strategist at The Inclusion Journey and Owner/Group Travel Specialist at Marianatha Tours
Maria Drueco owns The Inclusion Journey Consulting based in St. Albert Alberta and also the founder of Faith- Based focus travel agency, Marianatha Tours. She has been organizing and leading groups to Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Mexico and Europe since 2015.
Aside from her travel industry business, she is also a seasoned Leadership Consultant focused on Equity, Diversity & Inclusion work. She helps leaders and individuals develop their intercultural competencies to succeed at work and in business. She guides leaders in achieving organizational excellence and coaches them on how to inclusively lead a diverse team and build an equitable workplace. She has worked with various industries, from medium to large-sized organizations, including the public sector, and coached leaders at all levels: Executives/ Senior Leaders, Managers, and front-line supervisors.
Maria immigrated to Canada from the Philippines in 2007. As an immigrant and member of the underrepresented group, she has lived experiences of workplace bullying and micro-aggressive behaviors, hence, she became passionate about using her knowledge, education, and experience to educate individuals, empower the women and other members of the underrepresented group, help leaders build their inclusive leadership capabilities and support organizations in building an equitable and inclusive workplace culture.
Maria does EDI-related facilitation and consulting work for organizations. She also creates and delivers programs that focus on personal development and inclusive leadership development.
Current programs/ workshops that Maria built and delivers to organizations (corporate/ non-profit) include:
• Emotional Intelligence at Work
• Empowering Self & Others Through Intercultural Intelligence
• Build Your Intercultural Competence
• Inclusive Customer Service Training
• Intercultural Coaching for Managers/ Leaders
• Inclusive Onboarding Strategies for a Diverse Workforce
• The K.I.T. to Effectively Onboard Yourself in Any Job
• Unhide Yourself Workshop: Break Free from Stigma and Stereotypes
• Impact vs Intent: Understanding and Dealing with Microaggression
• Complicit or Cooperator: From Jokes to Genocide (Impact of Silent Collusion)
• “I Don’t See Color”: Workshop on Power, Privilege and Oppression
For Maria, mentorship is a way giving back. She finds fulfillment in seeing others succeed knowing that she helped contribute to the success of the people she mentored by sharing her experience, advice, insight on being a newcomer, overcoming challenges, the importance of having the right mindset and why it is important to lead ourselves first before we can lead others. She is a mentor to new immigrants with Edmonton Region Immigrant Employment Council (ERIEC) and with new travel agents with Nexion Travel Group.
She is also an active Board Member with 2 non-profit organizations:
• SIETAR BC (Society for Intercultural Training and Research) – Board Secretary
• International Personnel Management Association – Canada (IPMA-Canada) – Director At Large
Maria’s LinkedIn Page