Ana María Fernández
Edu1st Founder and Creator of the VESS Model
[email protected]USA
Ana Maria Fernandez, Founder, and President of Education First Inc.
Has a BS in Early Childhood Ed. and a Master’s degree in International School Administration from TCNJ University in the USA.
Ana Maria is Edu1st’s Founder and President, she also founded CGB int’l school, The British school in Bogota, Colombia, and is the founder of 6 Early Childhood Centers in Florida, USA. Ana Maria is the author of the VESS (Meaningful live with balance and wisdom) Educational Model, a Master Trainer, a Mentor coach and curriculum designer, and Coordinator for Edu1st.
Ana Maria has over 30 years of experience in the educational field. She is an international advisor for schools aiming to transform education into active sustainable cultures of thinking and learning. In addition, to be a Neuroeducation Postgrad teacher at Barcelona University, Ana Maria is also one of the forerunners, along with the University of Barcelona, of the first Neuroeducation Chair worldwide.
She has dedicated her life working to the improvement of education through the implementation of “Thinking as a Pedagogical Strategy.” An approach to learning that carefully integrates the Visible Thinking approach and all PZ ideas from Harvard University, The theory of Constraint (TOC), the De Bono’s Lateral, and Parallel Thinking strategies, among many others. She is a certified trainer for the De Bono Group on Six Thinking Hats and parallel Thinking as well as for USA Thinking Maps.
Ana Maria has presented her work in various international conferences, including the International Conference on Thinking ICOT held in Malaysia in 2009, in Belfast, 2011, in NZ, 2013 in Spain, 2015, in the USA, 2018; the OMEP int’l conference in Croatia, 2017, various times at LAHC in Latin America among many others.
Besides, she leads the VESS School Network, collaborating with schools in the USA, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Poland, Ecuador, and Spain. These institutions form a worldwide school network of collaboration, training, and inspiration. Ana Maria is leading various action researches at her schools.
