Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria-Victoria Ramirez.
Hi Maria-Victoria, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Daughter of a single immigrant mother of four, we arrived here evading the chaos and violence of Colombia in the 80s. My father’s family has lost multiple family members to gun violence, including several of my cousins. So we dodged a bullet quite literally. I arrived here at just four years old but moved over 25 times before I reached high school. I spent time in Miami, then back to Colombia (in different cities), then Elizabeth, New Jersey, and eventually, I was accepted into the University of Miami. Due to financial reasons, I couldn’t complete my degree at UM, my mom knew nothing about credit, the process of putting a child through college here, or even in Colombia. Realizing just how challenging adulthood would be for an immigrant child with little resources or understanding of the system, I abandoned my dreams of being a singer/psychologist. I ended up getting a degree in business specializing in cross-cultural relations and a degree in marketing advertising from Florida Atlantic University on a full scholarship. I met my husband and built a life and a stable career.
I was the first in my house to earn a degree from an accredited university. I was the first to work in corporate America, starting at McCann Erickson as an intern working with clients like UPS, MasterCard, CocaCola, and Johnson & Johnson. Then UPS hired me full-time in Public Relations; later, I worked in Employee Communications during their 100th anniversary and rebranding. I helped lead teams across all of Latin America and Canada, ensuring the messaging was sensitive to each culture and concise in three languages. I then worked for the largest Human Resources product provider in the country, the owner of Gneil and HR Direct. I even helped produce training videos and training materials for companies all over the country. I even had a role in the videos! I later went on to work in another agency working with clients like Humana, CitiBank, and State Farm. Feeling major burnout and empty nesters syndrome, I left my corporate career in 2009 to “backpack” through Europe.
One month before I went, I found out I was miraculously pregnant with my first biological child after ten years of trying and after raising my eldest adopted son, a child from my husband’s previous marriage. We went to Italy anyway, worked, and lived there with our baby for two years. I built a marketing agency with digital clients in the Americas and different parts of Western Europe. I returned to South Florida (Surfside, to be specific, a few buildings from the recent tragic collapse). I began to dig deeper into the burnout I had experienced in Corporate America, the depression I battled after giving birth, and seeking answers about the gaps of support people experience when facing hardship. As a new mother, I immersed myself in seeking answers on why the system is built differently here than in Europe — not offering the same resources and support to parents and young children, for example. I realized this was part of the “burnout” I was experiencing. Many times it was exhaustion from battling systemic issues beyond my control. When it came to education, nutrition, access to healthcare, and quality of life, I felt like my home here in Miami fell short of my experience overseas.
In my attempts to find support and community, I helped grow a MeetUp group of parents in South Florida called Buzzy Kids. I wanted to give my child some of the educational and community experiences I felt he could have had in Italy or even back in Colombia. The group grew to over 600 moms, and it became our haven and daily support for a while. However, as my son grew up and entered the public school system, I began to see how more gaps in access that children have, depending on various factors, including religion, ethnicity, legal status, gender, and definitely race. I had taught, worked on, and wrote about this in my years of work, but I never really understood it as deeply in practice beyond the theory. I had raised a son in this school system but ignored so much while trying to balance work and home! Then, I drew from my cross-cultural experience and my work in Human Resources to teach organizations and businesses how to fill some of those gaps under the umbrella of what I call “equity branding.” I was trying to make a systemic impact through my work in marketing and branding.
I then began to attend school board meetings advocating for children back in 2015, and that’s where my life flipped completely. I knew “equity marketing” (as people call it now) paid the bills, but I felt the need to do more outside the context of marketing. Then our country also began shifting politically; more people were becoming more involved in activism and advocacy. I became fully activated as well. As someone who came from a nation at war for 50 years, I knew it took every one of us, every voice, to ensure a safer, healthier future for our children. I stopped working altogether for the next two years and fully immersed myself in community organizing and advocacy. I worked as the founding chair for the Miami Climate Alliance. I volunteered for several social justice groups and immersed myself in “the work.” All the pieces of my identity converged, and I used every single thread in the web of my life to build a new purpose. In 2018 in partnership with my good friend and fellow church choir singer Alexandra Louis RMHCI, a mental health therapist, we founded ReEnvision Harmony (Now legally known as ReEnvision Harmony and Social Equity). I knew immediately this would be the main focus of work for years to come. We developed a curriculum to teach organizations to build more equitable spaces with empathy and accountability at the core. We have introduced numerous organizations, non-profits, schools in Miami-Dade and Broward, and individuals all over South Florida. We developed a harm reduction and accountability model that has helped us mentor (and be mentored by) many people in our community — to continue the uncomfortable yet vital conversations we have coined “Discomfort Discourse.” We have mediated, facilitated, and started many complex and difficult discussions at workplaces all over south Florida. Recently, Alexandra returned to full-time work advocating for historically marginalized youth through therapy. At the same time, I continue to educate folks on the importance of making spaces safer and more inclusive, mostly for children. I also help people develop inclusive language and messaging for their organizations.
I recently confirmed I am neurodivergent, which explains so much about my workplace trauma. I also appreciate how because of it, I can shift from discipline to discipline, role to role, finding connections, and empathizing with differing points of view with such ease. This diagnosis furthers my resolve to advocate for the voices that have been silenced or erased. I continue to seek to empower those experiencing oppression and inequality in the workplace and beyond.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I think being a neurodivergent, Colombian woman with a passion for the work is challenging in a world developed specifically to silence and belittle our contributions. People and spaces don’t really understand how neurodivergent people function, how we communicate, why we behave how we do. When they learn about our label, they only see the setbacks, the liabilities instead of realizing the many ways neurodivergence is a huge asset. Growing up around a lot of gender discrimination and facing that in the workplace has also been difficult. For a long time, I tried to tough it out but I am now a deep believer in therapy, coaching, and a strong support system as well as a deep radical dedication to self-care and boundaries is vital to face challenges in a healthy way. Nothing is harder than the resistance to the work of dismantling biases. It’s the core of what I teach. We are all very fragile about our deficiencies and areas of growth. As we get older, we get set in our ways and forget the thrill and beauty of growth and learning. Our concern with how we are perceived takes over and we block out introspection and self-awareness stagnating deep meaningful relationships with others. This is the hardest part of my job now.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am different because people with brains like mine tend to focus deeply on what interests us even if that changes every couple of years. So I can attribute to my resume professional singer, marketer, artist, activist, community organizer, speaker, facilitator, event and wedding planner, teacher, copywriter, polyglot, business owner, and Diversity Equity and Inclusion specialist. Most people only spend their lives doing one thing, I spent my life following my passion which is my dedication to learning and justice. One thing that has never changed, my passion for equity and justice. However, most of my work has been developing stories for brands, when their stories lacked harmony and inclusion, I coached them through it to ensure their virtue signaling went beyond into action. I do not only want to make brands sound accepting, I teach them to do the difficult work of REALLY accepting those who do not have access to equal rights or access. I passionately pursue inclusion through my work in marketing and consulting.
How do you think about happiness?
My family! They are my safe space, the place I can fully be me, the space where I am whole. We travel a lot as a family and our adventures are my fondest memories. I also love the women who mentor me and teach me. They inspire me to be strong and radically joyful.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: reenvisionharmony.com
- Instagram: @reenvisionharmony
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReEnvisionHarmony/
Image Credits
Photo at Women’s March 2020 – Carrie Feit
