Maria-Teresa Lepeley

Biography

Maria-Teresa Lepeley is a Chilean-American economist, educator and entrepreneur. She is founder and president of the Global Institute for Quality Education GIQE. Her academic background includes responsibilities as director of Executive Programs in Economics and Management at Universidad de Chile and University of Connecticut in US respectively. As a global scholar she has an extensive list of assignments as visiting professor, keynote speaker, adviser and consultant in areas of specialization in Latin America in particular and also in countries around the world, from Peru to Dubai.  

She declares that she was born an educator but became an economist to solve endemic problems of quality in education. While fulfilling her duties as mother, she pursued graduate studies and completed master degrees in education (management and leadership with minor in statistics) and economics. Her transfer from the School of Education to the School of Business to study economics was a groundbreaking event at her Alma Mother, the University of Miami in the early 1980’s. Her vision and ambition to attain a multidisciplinary background gave her unique understanding of the close correlation, until then unexplored, between education and sustainable development positioning human wellbeing as a central pursuit and a recurrent challenge to face unavoidable disruptions of the global VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) environment.

She was Examiner of the Baldrige National Quality Award of the United States, taught comparative programs with EFQM European Foundation of Quality Management, and was adviser to National Quality Award Programs in Latin America, including Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Peru y Ecuador. Quality management gave her invaluable insight of the crucial importance of quality standards in the sustainability of organizations to advance productivity, national competitiveness as essential antecedents of people’s wellbeing. She highlights that the same quality principles and practices apply to education and all organizations seeking continuous performance improvement. Moreover, she adds, people who understand the fundamentals principles of quality know that the key element in quality attainment is human commitment. Noting that uses of quality that neglect clear evidence of continuous assessment and improvement are no more than qualifying adjectives, not quality standards.  

A pioneer in quality education, in 2001 McGraw-Hill published her book Quality Management in Education. A Model for Evaluation (in Spanish). Her model was presented in the inauguration of the World Bank Global Online Network. Since then “quality education” is no longer a luxury for a few, but a shared responsibility for all, as much as a national priority for most countries. She states that quality standards are not an option but an imperative in the Knowledge Economy and the 21st century. Her Human Centered Management Book Series is anchored in quality principles and practices that enhance people and their wellbeing in organizations and development.  

Education

MA Economics. University of Miami. US
MS Higher Education Management. University of Miami. US
BS Education and English. Univeridad de Santiago. Chile

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Management:
- Human Centered Management.
- Wellbeing@work.
- Quality Management: education and organizations.

Economics:
- Human centered sustainable development
- Impact of education in development
- Quality education and economic and social sustainability.
- ESTE Balanced Sustainable Development (economic, social, technological, environment)
- "The problem is not income inequality, is lack of quality education for all". Lepeley, M.T. (2019) EDUCONOMY. Unleashing Wellbeing and Human Centered Sustainable Development".  

Entrepreneurship:
- Women in entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurial ecosystems
. Wellbeing in entrepreneurships as source of income and increased productivity and success.    

Personal Interests

She is passionate about change, improvement and innovation. She is author and editor of two Human Centered Book Series seeking continuous improvement in inquiries, research and learning as personal satisfaction and to share and engage associates in global teams and networks. She is an avid international traveler who has visited countries around the world. Previously she traveled extensively to meet academic duties; now her traveling has switched from professional to personal enjoyment and continuous growth. She belongs to literary study group of Hispanic American contemporary authors. She appreciates good movies and classical music. Some of her favorite composers are Bach, Haydn, Handel, Vivaldi, Telemann and a preference for the baroque. Jazz is her second. She underlies the importance of daily workouts to keep agile and well aligned body and mind, as much as good sense of humor to activate and enjoy with good friends and colleagues. She feels lucky to have friends from childhood and to keep exchanging and collaborating with classmates and colleagues from her undergraduate years.    

Websites

• Global Institute for Quality Education GIQE

• Human Centered Management in Executive Education

• Innovation in Human Centered Sustainability

Books

Articles