Join Our Embodying Leadership™ Research Study
Our research project explores how leaders from diverse and historically marginalized backgrounds (e.g., Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latina/o/e/x, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Mixed Race, Immigrant) experience, construct, and embody leadership within professional contexts.
Participant Eligibility Criteria
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You must currently serve in a leadership role. We define leadership broadly to include both formal and informal contexts. You qualify as a leader if you:
Supervise others or oversee a team
Serve in an executive, managerial, pastoral, or program director role
Influence decisions, culture, or strategy in your organization or community
Mentor, coach, or guide others in your workplace, church, or local context
Note: Leadership can be positional or relational — we value both.
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You must identify with one or more communities that have been historically underrepresented, underserved, or systemically marginalized in leadership spaces. Examples include, but are not limited to:
Black / African American
Hispanic / Latino/a/x
Asian American or Pacific Islander
Native American / Indigenous
Immigrant or First-Generation (immigrant experience or first in your family to pursue leadership roles)
Middle Eastern / North African
Mixed Race / Multiracial
Other identities that have experienced marginalization (please self-identify if applicable)
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Participants must currently live and work in the United States, regardless of citizenship status. This allows us to contextualize the research within U.S. cultural, organizational, and systemic dynamics.
What you’ll be asked to do
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✺ Brief Survey ✺
All participants will complete a brief online survey (15–20 minutes) consisting of demographic questions and Likert-scale items measuring identity affirmation, cultural integration, leadership authenticity, and workplace belonging.
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✺ Interview or Focus Group✺
A subset of participants will engage in a 60–75-minute interview or a 90-minute focus group to provide deeper context and narrative detail.
Key Questions We Seek to Answer
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How do leaders from diverse cultural and identity backgrounds experience, construct, and embody leadership within professional contexts?
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What role does personal identity play in leadership development and practice?
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How do cultural frameworks, both personal and organizational, influence leadership behaviors and perceptions?
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What strategies do underrepresented leaders use to navigate pressures of assimilation while developing an authentic leadership identity?
Meet the Researchers
Dr. Norlan Hernández Blandón
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Dr. Norlan Hernández is a proud Nica/Nicoya– terms used to describe someone with Nicaraguan roots. He is the proud father to Aella Mia and husband to Isabel.
He is the founder and president of Faithful Teachings, Inc. a nonprofit organization that aims to be a catalyst through partnerships with local faith-based communities on holistic initiatives for the transformation of society in Latin America. He is also CEO and Lead Consultant at Empowerfy Consulting, a consulting firm that provides a high-impacting, research-based, data-driven, and culturally informed approach to professional development.
Dr. Hernández also serves as the Associate Provost of Engagement and Inclusive Teaching and Learning (aka Chief Diversity Officer) at Fresno Pacific University. His previous roles include being the Director of the Jesse Miranda Center for Hispanic Leadership at Vanguard University, leading a corporate training team that served an international audience, and leading teams of higher education professionals who pioneered institutional efforts in creating an infrastructure to support fully online undergraduate and graduate students.
His previous roles include leading a corporate training team that served an international audience. He has also led a team of higher education professionals who pioneered institutional efforts in creating an infrastructure to support fully online undergraduate and graduate students.
Dr. Hernández has presented and published on various leadership topics. He contributed a chapter entitled “Identity, Intersectionality, and Leadership: Leading While Brown” included in Ludmila Praslova’s book Evidence-Based Organizational Practices for Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging and Equity. He has published in academic journals, which include “A double paradox: Servant leadership and gender scripts in the Latin American context” in the Theology of Leadership Journal and “You Hide Pieces of Yourself”: Navigating White Spaces as U.S. Missionaries of Color” published in Transformation. Dr. Hernández is also a part of the Publisher’s Circle at Hispanic Executive where he has published articles entitled “The Art and Responsibility of Leading as a Latino” and “Embodying Brown Leadership in Predominantly White Institutions. Hispanic Executive.” He is also the author of Pursuing Self: Body, Mind, Spirit, which presents a set of poems that speak to the lived experience of a hyphenated identity.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies with an emphasis on culture and society from California State Los Angeles, a Master of Arts in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies from Biola’s Cook School of Intercultural Studies, and an Executive MBA from UCI’s Paul Merage School of Business. His research interests include Latin American identity, theology, contextualization, leadership, justice, and DEIB - diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
In his free time, he enjoys exercising, spending time outdoors with his wife Isabel and daughter Aella Mia, reading, and watching movies and documentaries.
Dr. Salvador Bueno
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Dr. Bueno (He/Him) is an energetic, driven, and dedicated individual experienced in learning and development, empowering diverse student populations, with an emphasis on non-profit and for-profit education. He has 20-plus years of experience in higher education with the ability to encourage, support, train, and lead students and graduates to meet personal goals.
In 2022, Dr. Bueno successfully defended his dissertation “Factors Contributing to Latino Males’ Successful Experience in Higher Education Leadership: A Qualitative Narrative Inquiry”, which examines the lived experiences, stories, and contributing factors that endorsed Latino males to overcome barriers experienced towards higher educational leadership attainment. During his academic training and 20 years of experience working in higher educational environments (non-profit, proprietary, and global institutions), he developed the skills to support students from diverse academic, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds.
Dr. Bueno cultivates courses from a student-centered foundation, so that he nurtures an environment where students have a sense of belonging. As a business professor with the California Community College and University institutions, Dr. Bueno provides instruction to students within rural areas of the San Joaquin Valley, Dual Enrollment, and the Carcel Rising Scholars Program. Teaching in these multifaceted environments requires Dr. Bueno to deliver content according to his audience, while upholding academic rigor and standards.
Dr. Bueno prides himself on being family-oriented, leading with authenticity, and is collaborative at heart. Dr. Bueno has guided his two oldest children to successful collegiate pathways to California State University, Fresno.
where his son is studying in the Department of Kinesiology-Physical Education & Chicano and Latin American Studies, and his daughter is studying in the Department of Criminology-Victimology. Dr. Bueno is a soccer/futbol fanatic (playing and watching). Some of his hobbies include cooking, swimming, and passionately chasing lifelong learning. His ultimate pastime is experiencing life with his wife and four children.