Intercultural Competence: An Essential Skill in the Future Workforce

Meet Our Speakers

Liliana Gonzalez, BSc’12

Liliana brings her bilingual and multicultural background to her work as an international career development specialist with University of Calgary Career Services, helping international undergraduate, master’s and PhD students to achieve career success. She has more than 10 years of experience providing specialized support to students at UCalgary, where she is currently undertaking a Master of Counselling Psychology degree. Liliana is already a UCalgary alumna, with a Bachelor of Science in psychology, with a minor in visual art and art history. She also holds certificates in business human resource management, career educator, advanced sports and exercise nutrition, digital media design, and graphic design. Passionate about intercultural competence, Liliana has completed the following courses: Intercultural Communication through Shanghai International Studies University; Communicating Interculturally, Cultural and Social Justice Issues in Professional Practice, and Building Religious and Cultural Inclusion in the Workplace through UCalgary; and she attended Enhancing Cultural Competence for Building Inclusion through the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society.

 Adriana Tulissi, BA’02, BA’05

Adriana is the manager of the Faith & Spirituality Centre at the University of Calgary where she supports students, staff and faculty in building a more inclusive campus by focusing on education and awareness in inter-religious and intercultural programming and religious accommodation, among many other things.  She is co-founder and co-leader of Spirituality & Religious Pluralism, a national community of practice with the Canadian Association of College and University Student Services. Adriana is a qualified administrator for the Intercultural Development Inventory, an assessment tool that measures intercultural competence. She is currently the vice-chair of Convergence, a not-for-profit working to enhance college and university campus climates for religious, secular and spiritual identities through policy and practice. She served as a board member with the Rocky Mountain Civil Liberties Association from 2013 to 2016 and is a former board member of the Calgary Centre for Culture, Equity & Diversity. Her areas of interest include inter-religious dialogue and action, duty to accommodate and human rights, harmonizing religious minorities in the workplace, and advocating for students. Adriana has facilitated several workshops for the Alberta Human Rights Commission, the City of Red Deer and Shift Management on supporting religious diversity in the workplace and she has presented academic papers on the importance of religious pluralism at regional and national conferences in North America. Adriana is currently working on her LLB at the University of London, England. She has also completed her MA in history of Christianity at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, having also graduated from UCalgary with Bachelor of Arts degrees in religious studies and in communications and culture, with a minor in management.