“May you live in interesting times,” is usually described as a Chinese curse, although its origin is actually English or Irish. While that may or may not be another example of Chinese disregard for intellectual property ownership, it nonetheless applies almost everywhere as this complicated year draws towards a close.

That is certainly true in Colombia, which is beset with rising political violence, the potential for a constitutional crisis, pre-election maneuvering, and harassment from Donald Trump, his Pentagon, and his budget cutters. How will Colombia’s leadership react? Will they rise to the challenges? Or, as in so many other places, are the problems too great, and the leaders too small?

Our guest on this week’s New Thinking for a New World podcast episode is well-positioned to discuss the challenges of leadership in Colombia and beyond. Paula Moreno was Minister of Culture in the government of President Álvaro Uribe, the first woman Afro-Caribbean minister in her country’s history, and the founder of Manos Visibles. Listen as she discusses leadership in the 21st century.

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ABOUT OUR GUEST

Paula Moreno is a trailblazing advocate for racial equity, social innovation, and generational transformation in Latin America. A Colombian industrial engineer with an MPhil in Management Studies from the University of Cambridge and additional studies at MIT and Yale, she made history as Colombia’s youngest and first Afro-Colombian woman to serve in a cabinet position as Minister of Culture. In the last fifteen years, as founder and president of Corporación Manos Visibles, Paula has catalyzed transformative leadership among more than 28,000 people and helped establish over 600 community organizations with a transnational network in 11 countries, championing new generations of Black and ethnic leaders shaping Colombia’s future.She was member of the truth commission of Colombia and the presidential advisory group for the most recent peace process in Colombia.  For twelve years, she has served on the Ford Foundation Board of Trustees and more recently at the Toriba Institute in Brazil. Her contributions have earned her international honors, including the Order of St. Charles (Colombia), the Order of the Aztec Eagle (Mexico), the Black Excellence Award in the U.K.  and the UN MIPAD Recognition. A respected writer and cultural producer, Paula is the author of El Poder de lo Invisible and Soñar lo Imposible—the latter inspiring an upcoming Netflix series—works that reflect her vision of a more inclusive, creative, and just world.