Jo Ann Piña

Dr. Jo Piña is an ethnically diverse speaker who truly excels in cross-cultural communication. She is the daughter of a migrant worker, a first-generation Hispanic and the only Latina PhD in the National Speakers Association. Born and reared in Texas during the Civil Rights movement, she is the only one of four children to survive childhood.

As a result of her cultural heritage and the challenges she experienced in her early life and later in her career, she has focused her research, book, articles and training seminars on bridging the communications gap among Anglo Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and women to increase understanding, cooperation, success and productivity.

As a teenager in San Antonio , Dr. Piña challenged the administration of a private girls' school to reverse her assignment to classes well below her achievement level, which was clearly a racially motivated policy. Dr. Piña relates her experience with the Sisters of Incarnate Word in the first chapter of her book, Getting Across...Your Message, Your Ideas, Your Meaning.

Barely 18 and reeling from her mother's death, she applied for a summer job to earn tuition money for fall classes. Her first interview with a finance company required a placement test. Imagine her surprise when the office manager stopped her before she completed the math section, informing her that "time's up." He'd never mentioned it was a timed test. When she challenged him, he simply said, "You failed the test, and taking it over won't improve your score."

It didn't take Dr. Piña long to realize she'd just experienced her first episode of job discrimination. Dr. Jo's extensive experience is literally a "who's who" in the industry. She is listed in "Who's Who" in American Universities, serves on the Board of Directors of both the National Speakers Association's Los Angeles Chapter and Growth Strategies, Inc., and was a fellow with the National Hispanic Leadership Institute.

Dr. Piña is a former professor and counselor at Montgomery College and corporate trainer for Anthony Robbins. She's currently on the graduate faculty at Johns Hopkins University . She earned her PhD at the American University in Washington , DC , and her MA at Hood College. She is a certified Myers-Briggs trainer, a mediator and an executive communications coach. She is the innovator of the F.A.S.T. approach to success. And Dr. Piña has the only values-based model for understanding cross-cultural communication.