Dr Claudia Escobar Vega is an academic and creative practitioner with a PhD in leadership. She is a Lecturer in Arts and Cultural Management at Deakin Business School. Claudia’s research concerns the development of effective strategies to promote leadership equality, diversity, and inclusion in future generations. She has particularly focused on the early development of children’s and adolescents’ theories of leadership. She has appeared in National media and is dynamic with a long cross-disciplinary interest in education as well as teaching experience and strong student evaluations.

She has 20+ years of experience consulting and developing projects with children and adolescents from diverse backgrounds in diverse settings. Claudia has research expertise in school settings where she also delivers professional development training for leaders in the education sector. She has previously worked as a research fellow in multi-disciplinary teams across areas of leadership, arts management, mental health and management and as lecturer supporting teaching for MBA and Masters in Human Resources students and arts management and event management undergraduate students.

She has a track record working as an arts manager, arts practitioner, and academic. She has a long trajectory working in the arts industry, has served in arts advisory committees and boards of management. She has continuously been involved in the development of strategic partnerships, programming and event production in the arts sector. This experience has given her the opportunity to engage with an array of arts organisations and arts professionals including arts managers, marketing, finance, development, production and programming professionals, artists, government reps, funding bodies, cultural representatives and diverse audiences.

She is the recipient of multiple awards and scholarships including Australian & New Zealand Academy of Management Best Doctoral Dissertation - Commendation of Merit Award (2021); Highly Commended Certificate, Youth for Peace Award, Australian Psychological Society (2020 – as co-creator); Elite Editing Thesis Write-up Scholarship (2020); Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship (Australia, 2011); and Art and Youth for Peace Award (Colombia, 2010).

She has a growing publication profile and recent work in the highly ranked Psychological Review (ABDC rank A*) and the Journal of Management & Organization and BMC Psychiatry . Her research work has been featured at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, virtual (2021), 5th Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Leadership Symposium, Mykonos, Greece 2020; at the Australian & New Zealand Academy of Management ANZAM 2018, Auckland, New Zealand and at the International Conference on Arts and Cultural Management AIMAC 2013, Bogota, Colombia.

She holds a PhD from the University of Wollongong (Australia), Master in Theatre Practice and a Postgraduate Diploma in Performance Creation from The University of Melbourne, Faculty of the VCA and Music (Australia); a Master of Management (Hons) and Graduate Diploma in Marketing from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) and a BA in Industrial Design (Hons) from Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

She enjoys theatre-making and song-writing in her spare time. She enjoys life in Melbourne, Australia, alongside her partner Jorge and her daughter Luna.

Image credit Manda Ford