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Adriana Maritrza Barona
Biographical Info
Adriana Maritrza Barona was born in Palmira, Valle del Cauca, Columbia on 20 May 1961. Adriana lived in Columbia for more than 20 years. In 1986 she moved to Venezeula, where she acquired a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a major in Accounting from the University of Santa María (USM), where she received a title in “Licenciada en Contaduría Pública” in the year 1994. In the year 2001 she graduated from the Universidad Simón Bolívar (USB), in Caracas, with a master’s degree in Management.
Since 1992, she has been working for social causes, participating in activities in her community, such as coordinating for many years the “Asambleas de Ciudadanos”, which taught people their rights as citizens and fought to re-establish democracy in Venezuela. She also volunteered in the non-governmental organization “Súmate” and participated in “Firmazo”, “Reafiamazo”, and in the “Referendo Revocatorio Presidencial”. She was also chosen by popular demand as “Comisario en la asociación vecinal”, in Asopraes in Prados del Este. She lived in Caracas until August 2004 when
she moved to the United States of America along with her son Luis. In the same year, she led the first forum in the University of Oklahoma (O.U.) about the political and economic situation in Venezuela.
She has lived in Oklahoma for almost 13 years and completed a master’s degree in Arts In Leadership, from the Mid-America Christian University, in Oklahoma City. One way she applied motivation in her laboral life, was when she wrote her thesis in her postgraduate degree in Management, in which the philosophy was “learning while doing.” She used this idea in a Venezuelan State Institution, in the “change of Visión and Misión in the Gestión Pública”. She has taught workshops to the employees to motivate them to be better public workers and to guide them to have a sense of responsibility over their community. She created instructional manuals to help with the improvement of their jobs; it was a volunteer opportunity to help her coworkers. Also, she led meetings for organizations such as the “Metro de Caracas”. Her presentations focused on management and were directed towards directors, managers and the bosses of each division.
In Oklahoma City she has participated as a volunteer in the project of Metro Technology Center, called “incubadora de negocios”, in which she focused on Human Resources and the Principles of Accounting. She was a motivational volunteer in the Latino Community Development Agency, in the program “support group”, from the Latina Women’s Clinic with patients with cancer for more than five years. She has directed workshops called “Principios Básicos Motivacionales de Planificación Estratégica Personal”, based on principles of exemplary leading in St. Patrick Catholic Church. As well as in “Principios básicos motivacionales al logro” in Clips N Hips, Camara de Comercio del Sur etc…
For three consecutive years she has organized with Mid-America Christian University and the Center of Comprehensive Motivation, in which she is the general director of conferences of women, a conference called “ The Challenges of the Hispanic Woman”, coordinated with Dr. Melody Cepeda and Dr. Cepeda Director from Thomas School, of the same university, with the purpose of helping women from Hispanic communities prosper in different areas of their lives, such as being a single mother and being a professional, ministerial, and social leader. She also was the leader of the organization that arranged the “Día de Venezuela”, with the purpose of encouraging values and Venezuelan culture. In various opportunities, she has organized meetings of Venezuelans in different parts such as the newspaper, “El Nacional”, in the areas surrounding the University of Oklahoma and in the Oklahoma State Capitol with the purpose to raise awareness about the impending social and humanitarian crisis that persists in Venezuela. Also, she has encouraged meetings with the president of the Alliance of Universal Human Rights in Oklahoma.
Other activities she participates in is being the treasurer of the Oklahoma Hispanic Political Action Council. Currently she is involved in a project of specialized teaching, based on personal principles and in academic excellence, with the purpose of generating transformational processes integrating the To Be, To Do, and To Know, which is supported by the Universidad Central de Venezuela.