Dr. Gary Low is Professor Emeritus of Education, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Consulting Psychologist, Patron and Life Member of the Forum for EI Learning (FEIL) in India. A principal of EI Learning Systems, Inc. he is also a founder and faculty member of the Emotional Intelligence Training & Research Institute (EITRI).

Merideth Erickson, PhD is a director for a residential facility providing services to adults with Intellectual Disabilities in New Braunfels, Texas. She leads a team of over 100 staff and utilizes emotional intelligence daily. Merideth has served the nonprofit community as CEO and Executive Director of human services nonprofits where she honed her EI leadership skills. She is an adjunct instructor and consultant teaching courses on Emotional Intelligence, Customer Service, and Grant Writing that she created. Merideth earned her BS in Psychology, Master’s in Business, and her PhD in Public Policy and Administration.

Dr. Potter is a South Texas native with over 14 years of experience in higher education. She has worked as a counselor helping to guide college students through their academics while preparing them for life after graduation. Currently, Lauren is a Professional Assistant Professor with Texas A&M University Corpus Christi and has enjoyed serving college students in that capacity since 2018. Lauren holds a PhD in General Psychology, and an M.S. in Counseling and Guidance. Dr. Potter enjoys spreading the skills of emotional intelligence in her professional endeavors and personal relationships.

Kallieste McKinzey is a Senior at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi who is graduating in May 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She is planning to continue her education at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi to earn her Master of Science in Professional Counseling and in the process attain her Licensed Professional Counselor credential with the state of Texas. She is currently volunteering her time and expertise by working with others in addiction and recovery while also volunteering with Street Ministries in Corpus Christi, Tx.

Cristina Peña, director of the Psychology Department of Clinica Lancet, she represents EITRI in México Education with SCALA partner, Rosa Nelly Ramírez. She has more than 40 years of experience in Clinical Psychology, with a Master's Degree in Psycho-Physioloogy and Children and Adolescent Psychotherapy. She also author of Guiding Parents, Grandparents, and Teachers for Personal Development, as well as co-author of the little book How Do You Feel? Together with her partner Rosa Nelly Ramirez, she develops and delivers training programs for learning and practicing the thirteen skills of the Emotional Intelligence using the transformative approaches developed by from Drs. Darwin Nelson and Gary Low. Their programs have been implemented successfully in Mexico for the last four years.

Rosa Nelly has over 25 years of professional experience in Human Resources, Training, and Organizational Development, including management assignments in the automotive industry. Since 1994 she has served as the Director of Scala Consultores, a well-established consulting firm specialized in Training and Organizational Development Consulting.

Rosa Nelly and her associate, Cristina Peña, represent the Emotional Intelligence Training and Research Institute (EITRI) – Mexico. Together they have created and provide training programs to develop Emotional Intelligence skills for individuals and organizations.

Julie Chancler, EdD – Julie was introduced to Dr. Low and Dr. Nelson at Texas A&M University Kingsville several years ago. As a doctoral candidate, Julie incorporated both the shorter college version of Nelson and Low’s (1998) positive assessment tool, the Emotional Skills Assessment Process® (ESAP®) and Blake and Mouton’s Managerial grid, to examine whether EI provides an underlying framework in leadership independent of managerial styles. In her dissertation, A Comparison of Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Styles Among Texas Public School Principals (2012), Dr. Chancler concluded that the prevailing leadership style among Texas principals was Team Leadership with relatively high scores on both people and task dimensions. With assistance from long-time friend and research mentor, Dr. Rick Hammett, Julie has remained associated with the Emotional Intelligence Training and Research Institute for almost two decades. Her background includes over twenty years of work as a teacher and principal in Texas schools.

Proudly Mexican, Susana was born and grew up in Guadalajara.

Passionate about education and personal development, she obtained her bachelor’s degree in Pedagogy at Universidad Panamericana in 2008. Since then, her professional development has ranged from pedagogic college adviser, parent education, educational research to one of her main positions; director of the summer camp "Campamento La Cañada" in Mexico. In 2012, she moved to Houston, a city she considers to be a wonderful place to live. In 2015 she received her Health Coach certification from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. Since then she has worked hard to help people achieve a healthier lifestyle. Also, in 2017 she obtained her certificate from Emotional Intelligence Learning Systems (EILS) to manage and interpret EILS learning materials for her clients. Susana is a dedicated wife and mother of three kids, and she considers her family her most important project. A nature lover, Susanaenjoys being with friends, likes to exercise, and loves to read, write, and paint.

Dr. Delia E. Mateias’ current research interest is experiential research evidence-based analytics of emotional intelligence as it relates to leadership and decision making. Delia completed a her PhD thesis, “Emotional Intelligence in Leadership”, during her Fulbright Scholar experience at George Washington University, sustaining a passion for understanding the role of emotional intelligence in leadership excellence.

Dr. Mateias created a non-governmental organization – www.eilead.org (Transformational Leadership NGO) and subsequently achieved accreditation for an EI teacher training program through the Romanian Ministry of Education. Through her pioneering training program, Dr. Mateias aims to share best practices and transformative models of emotional intelligence to help shape and develop current and future leaders who will transform the quality of education throughout Romania and beyond. For further information about how to jointly develop an international partnership, please contact Dr. Delia Mateias at: [email protected], [email protected].

Ana Laura Ramirez was born in McAllen, Texas and raised in Camargo, Mexico. She graduated with a BA in Food Engineering from Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey. She moved to Texas in 2000 and became a Bilingual teacher through an Alternative Certification program. She has served as a kinder teacher in Rio Grande City, Texas for 6 years and for McAllen 9 years. Since 2016 she has been the Spanish Teacher at the Instruction and Guidance Center in McAllen ISD. Believing so much in emotional intelligence, since 2018, Ana Laura has participated in professional development and has shared her knowledge with fellow educators, students, and other professionals through statewide conferences and district departments.

Fernando obtained a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from the University of Texas at Austin and a teaching certification through Uteach at the same institution. He earned his Master’s degree in Educational leadership from Texas State University. He serves as the Principal at the Instruction and Guidance Center where he challenges students and staff to apply academic knowledge in order to solve real-world problems. He embeds Emotional Intelligence with the state mandated curriculum, 7 competencies and I&G Hands-On Learning to create a unique, authentic, and fertile learning environment.

Born in Israel and raised in the Rio Grande Valley, Karen Ilanit earned her bachelor's degree in accounting from UTPA in Edinburg, Texas. She became a teacher through the Alternative Certification Program at the Region One Education Service Center in 2005. After teaching for a couple of years, she earned her master's degree in Special Education from UTPA. She has been the Director of Education with her faith community and been an instructor with UTRGV in Edinburg, Texas. Currently, she is the Special Education Teacher at the Instruction and Guidance Center in McAllen ISD. Karen Ilanit has participated in and spoken at professional learning sessions in which she has gained and shared her knowledge about emotional intelligence.

She has a unique combination of experience in line and staff management, academic work in business and behavioral sciences, and experience in structuring and managing human performance systems. Her best seller book, Beyond the Myths and Magic of Mentoring: How to Facilitate an Effective Mentoring Process, includes more than forty years of research and client experiences with Facilitated Mentoring.

Dr. Hammett is a founding faculty member of the Emotional Intelligence Training & Research Institute and editor of EITRI's journal, the International Journal of Transformative Emotional Intelligence. He also supervises doctoral research for Walden University's Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership.

Ashis Sen holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Human Resources Management from the University of Petroleum and Engineering Studies, Dehradun, India. As an internal coach for Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), Dr. Sen initially became familiar with EITRI and the works of Darwin Nelson and Gary Low during the 2007 - Fourth Annual Institute for Emotional Intelligence in Kingsville, Texas. Between then and the time he retired from HPCL in 2016, Dr. Sen was instrumental in hosting the 1st (2008), 2nd (2009), and 3rd (2010) Global Forums for Emotional Intelligence in Mumbai, India. He was also instrumental in starting the Forum for Emotional Intelligence Learning in India, and rose to the position of General Manager of Capability Building before his retirement. In addition to running his own coaching and consulting business, he teaches in guest faculty positions for the T A Pai Institute of Management, IIM (Kashpur), NMIMS (Mumbai), and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Mumbai).

Dr. Banerjee-Batist is the Lead Faculty of the Business Administration subject area and Human Resources Management track. She teaches classes in Human Resource Management, International Business, Principles of Management, Introduction to Business, and Workforce & Diversity. She is the internship and professional development faculty coordinator for the Business Administration, Office Systems Technology, and Legal Assisting programs. She has thirty years teaching experience spanning high school, undergraduate, and graduate education. Her research interests are Mentoring, Attachment, Emotional Intelligence, Faculty development, Organizational outcomes, Human resource development, Career development, Program evaluation, and Program development. She is a published author in academic journals, conference proceedings, and book chapters on mentoring in higher education including junior faculty mentoring, and doctoral student mentoring.

Dr. Sarah Spradlin holds a DBA specializing in IO Psychology from Northcentral University, AZ, USA and is a certified expert in micro-expressions. After years of serving in the U.S. Marine Corps & working with Special Operations Command, she became fascinated with the fundamental role EI plays in establishing a resilient workforce capable of effectively navigating change in today’s global market. She is a leading expert in the study & application of EI as it relates to talent acquisition & organizational resilience among high-performance teams.

Dr. Fritz Lebowsky received a PhD degree in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany. He is enthusiastic about investigating astonishing human performance in visual perception and transferring the findings into meaningful products.

A Master degree program of executive Management of Technology and Innovation at the Grenoble School of Management led to encouraging people to grow valuable human competencies emerging from transformative emotional intelligence, artificial intelligence, and ethics in the era of ‘digital transformation’ — enabling a sustainable human future for ALL.

With the Peruvian influence of my parents, who were both born in Piura, Peru and were professional educators, I have always been motivated with a high degree of altruism for the community. I have a bachelor's degree in accounting but my path is as an ontological coach. I have been an ontological coach for six years and continue to work, study, and practice to expand my knowledge and skills to help those in need. I am currently working with Cristina Pena in the area of emotional intelligence.

My interest in contributing to the community has always motivated me get involved in organizations whose missions involve developing people. As such, I have served as the President of Rotary International in different cities throughout Mexico. I am currently serving as the Secretary of Toastmaster International, the first Spanish-speaking Toastmaster club in Houston. With Toastmaster International-Houston, I am working to further develop my leadership and public speaking skills.

A few years ago, I met Rick Hammett and Gary Low at the annual institute for emotional intelligence and fell in love with them for their spirit and their teachings during the conference. I look forward to my presentation this year with Cristina Pena during the 18Th Annual Institute for Emotional Intelligence, and I look forward to meeting you during the conference.