OUR FACILITATORS

Silvia Austerlic, MA

Santa Cruz, California, U.S.A.

• Critical interculturality
• Bridging inner work and social healing justice
• Emerging leadership development
• Holistic experiential learning
• Personal growth

PL Work

Silvia Austerlic, MA, fell in love with Personal Leadership as a Fellow at the Summer Institute of Intercultural Communication in 2015, and became a Senior Facilitator in October 2017.

In her personal practice, Silvia is deeply in tune with the PL principles of Mindfulness and Creativity, caring for what is while holding the vision of what could be. As a group facilitator and personal coach, she sees PL as a vehicle and invitation to transform oneself and enhance interpersonal relationships. In this way, we can show up in the world for ourselves and others more holistically, purposefully and effectively.

Other Work

Silvia is a dynamic intercultural facilitator, educator and consultant. She is the founder of Senti-Pensante Connections, an international consultancy based in Santa Cruz, California, whose mission is bridging cultures and differences, connecting inner work and social justice.

Senti-pensante is a Spanish word which represents the essence of Silvia’s intercultural work—the combination of sentimiento (feeling) and pensamiento (thinking). It is a holistic framework that facilitates the deep self-reflection, authentic connections and powerful conversations needed to address the complexities of our modern world.

Silvia’s services include training and coaching for individuals, organizations and communities, with a focus on service providers, educators and activists. She has consulted with national, regional and local organizations. For example, she worked with the New Teacher Center and Coalition for Compassionate Care of California to build their capacity for cultural diversity and inclusion. With the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County, she helped to re-frame and facilitate conversations on poverty and service delivery models. These conversations ensured a foundation of cultural dignity through research-based capacity-building and cultural humility training.

Her signature offerings include “Igniting Cultural Dignity,” “In Service of Cultural Wholeness,” “Discerning Wise Action in Challenging Times,” “Building an Inner Sanctuary” and “Grief as Soul Work.”

Between 2005 and 2015, Silvia served as the Latino community liaison for the Hospice of Santa Cruz County. She provided direct services on grief support and education, and cultural-linguistic access for Latino and monolingual Spanish children, youth and adults. In 2014, she was awarded the Community Hero Award by the Community Assessment Project of Santa Cruz County. Her hospice work was also featured in the book “Changing the Way We Die. Compassionate End-of-Life Care and the Hospice Movement” (2013).

She is a Board Member of the Community Action Board (CAB) of Santa Cruz www.cabinc.org, and a Steering Committee Member of the Center for World Networking www.cfwn.org.

Background

Silvia is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she grew up. She immigrated to the United States in 1998, and has lived in Santa Cruz since 1999 with her Chilean partner Fernando Leiva, Professor of Latino and Latin American Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz.

Academic

Silvia is a lecturer at Oakes College, University of California Santa Cruz. She currently teaches “Building an Inner Sanctuary,” a class co-created with her partner, which focuses on the development of internal resources to build capacity for solidarity and community-oriented action.

She studied Graphic Design at the University of Buenos Aires before moving to the United States. She studied Digital Media and Web Design at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, and has a Master’s Degree in Counselor Education from San José State University.

Other interests

In her free time, Silvia enjoys connecting with her local and global circles of family and friends, and loves building community.

Her favorite past-times are spending time in nature, walking on the beach or hiking in the redwood forests, and reading and writing.

She holds a black belt in Aikido, the martial arts of peace.