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Barkada
Consulting Network
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Background
Since 1991, Dr. Balón has served as consultant, speaker, and facilitator for colleges, school systems, government agencies, community- and faith-based organizations, Fortune 500 companies, not-for-profit boards, and youth groups on topics such as: workforce cultural competence, anti-racism education, social justice, intergroup dialogue, cross-cultural leadership and social change, trainer/facilitator effectiveness, leadership styles, organization development, group dynamics, and teambuilding. He is founder and president of Barkada Consulting Network, LLC, a social change organization that empowers difference-makers to build effective, inclusive, and caring communities.
Dan has worked closely with faculty, students, and people in leadership positions to bridge the gaps that exist among knowledge and understanding and application. He has extensive experience in leading teacher/facilitator training and development programs that have served clients as diverse as PK-12 school system administrators, college faculty, international management consultants, community/business presidents, interfaith community leaders, parents of elementary school children, engineering graduate teaching assistants, college resident advisors, and emerging high school leaders. Dan’s organization development workshops and seminars are highly regarded by clients in corporate, not-for-profit, and educational sectors all across the United States. He is a certified trainer in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) and an alumnus of the Social Justice Training Institute (SJTI).
Dan is an experienced facilitator and trainer for dialogues and diversity education workshops that empower leaders, build positive communities, and address social injustice. Through the University of Maryland’s nationally known Words of Engagement: An Intergroup Dialogue Program, he served as a certified inter-group dialogue facilitator and has since consulted with universities and communities on establishing their own story circle and intergroup dialogue programs. Dan also co-developed the inaugural Social Justice from Classroom to Community leadership retreat series. For his work in that role and his cumulative work at Maryland, Dan was selected as the 2004 recipient of the Rebecca Williams Award for Commitment to Social Change. He also was selected as a Scholar for the INTERACT (Intergroup Dialogue as Pedagogy Across the Curriculum) Pilot Project, funded by the Ford Foundation. In 2006, he helped establish, then directed the University of Maryland’s Office of Multicultural Involvement & Community Advocacy and also was adjunct faculty fellow in Asian American Studies and instructor in the College of Education.
Dan has worked professionally in PK-12 and varied higher education environments as teacher, administrator, and leader in numerous functional areas, including: residence life, leadership development, student life and campus activities, new student programs (First-Year Experience), multicultural affairs, equity and justice compliance, academic administration, career development, judicial programs, and college counseling. He also has worked in the non-profit sector — with Mosaica: The Center for Nonprofit Development and Pluralism and as a training consultant partner with the Corporation for National and Community Service. Dan’s first job was a newspaper carrier in his Daly City, California, childhood neighborhood; he currently serves as Director of Diversity & Equity for Vermont’s Burlington School District. In 2009, he was appointed Equity Officer for Employment and Retention. Currently, he is adjunct faculy at Drexel University’s School of Education and a trainer/facilitator with the Vermont-based training group, CQ Associates. In 2002, Dan was an honoris causa inductee into Omicron Delta Kappa.
Dan has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in multicultural education, Asian Pacific American (APA) identity, intergroup relations, higher education administration and college student development, and leadership development. He is the author of several publications, including “APA Leadership Development,” “APA College Students on Leadership: Culturally Marginalized from the Leader Role?,” and “Wait! It takes time to develop rich and relevant social justice curriculum,” an article for practitioners of multicultural and equity education in the September/October 2008 issue of About Campus. He is in the final edits of the book chapter, “Beyond Representation: Confronting The New Frontier For Asian American Leadership” for the forthcoming Asian Americans in Higher Education (Stylus Publishing, Spring 2011). His research interests include cultural leadership, social justice, educational and organizational diversity, and the “Multicultural Myth” in diversity education organizations.
He was born in Quezon City, Philippines, and moved to his childhood home in the San Francisco Bay Area at 10 months old. A West Coast romantic, Dan is a lifelong Aggie from the University of California at Davis, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in Sociology-Organizational Studies. He earned his graduate degrees (Master’s - College Student Personnel; Doctorate - Education Policy and Leadership) at the University of Maryland.
Dan
is an involved community member, serving on several advisory and corporate
boards in Burlington/Chittenden County and nationally. He has a passion
for softball in warm, arid weather; reads widely on baseball literature
and history; craves home-cooked Filipino food; and practices his negotiation
skills with his two strong and spunky daughters, Emma
Rose and Caitlin. He
resides in
Shelburne, Vermont with his girls and life-long partner,
Arline.