The Global Leaders Institute is dedicated to preparing arts professionals for roles of strategic influence, equipping them to lead impactful organizations worldwide. Our distinguished twelve-month Executive Graduate Certificate program is conducted in collaboration with esteemed institutions and think tanks from around the world, showcasing our commitment to academic excellence. With a faculty comprising notable figures such as Nobel laureates, Grammy winners, Polar Prize awardees, and TED presenters, our program ensures a top-tier learning experience. We boast a robust network of institutional fieldwork hosts across more than 40 nations, providing students with diverse and enriching practical opportunities. Each year, we welcome an executive Cohort of 70 arts leaders from across the globe, positioning our institute at the forefront of shaping the future of arts leadership on an international scale.
Cristina Vollmer Burelli, a Venezuelan-American social entrepreneur, is the founder and executive director of V5Initiative, a non-profit that leads and supports broad initiatives that promote better and more informed policy making and governance at the national and international level. V5 Initiative promotes and empowers the involvement of individuals, NGO’s and the private sector in matters of public policy through the dissemination of information that will raise awareness and invite action. She matriculated at Queens’ College, Cambridge in 1981 and read for an MA in Social Anthropology.
Previously, as executive director of Alliance for the Family between 2002 and 2014, she successfully took a visionary idea – a K-12 story-based universal values curriculum “Aprendiendo a Querer” – and transformed it into a sustainable, robust curriculum in 3 languages (Spanish, English and Portuguese) as well as an English version for Africa, that has touched an estimated 500,000 children and teenagers in 16 countries, including Cuba where she managed a large scale, complex project involving tens of thousands of Cuban students and families in various provinces including Havana.
Before moving to the US in 2000, Cristina was living in her native country, Venezuela, where she was a trustee of the Alberto Vollmer Foundation, The British School and El Museo de los Niños, one of the largest and most admired children’s museums in Latin America. For the last 25 years, Cristina has been deeply involved in various non-profits in the US that are mainly focused on education and youth, serving on the board of directors of Cambridge in America, The Orchestra of the Americas, founding co-chair of the Global Leaders Program, Families of Character, National Fatherhood Initiative and the Washington Studies Group. The common thread in her work in all these organizations has been her passion for education and the promotion of universal values through different means including classical music.
Since 2018, Cristina has been focused on the humanitarian and environmental crisis in Venezuela. She is the founder and general manager for advocacy group www.SOSOrinoco.org
She has spoken and written on topics close to her heart such as the challenges and urgent needs for educating in democratic values and empowering the young by inspiring noble purpose through character and entrepreneurship, as well as the environmental devastation in Venezuela.
The Global Leaders Institute
is a full member college of Woolf, offering accredited degrees under the European Standards and Guidelines (Brussels 2015). Woolf is a global collegiate Higher Education Institution licensed in Europe (license 2019-015), and the operative Policy of Quality Assurance allows member colleges to share the same standards of accreditation while independently managing their own students and faculty. Courses with ECTS credits are specifically designated as such.
The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) today comprises 49 member countries - more than just Europe. All the Higher Education Institutions in the EHEA use the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), providing a shared framework for accrediting courses and degrees.
The Bologna Process names the agreements which harmonize the accreditation standards of Europe. The process created not only the EHEA, but also the European Credit transfer System. Initially this was a system to transfer credits between institutions, and later it became the standard way to refer to the credits themselves, such as '90 ECTS credits'.
The European Commission is the executive branch of the European Union. It is responsible for proposing legislation, enforcing EU laws and directing the Union's administrative operations, including education initiatives and policy-making. It oversees the ECTS system. All EHEA countries have adopted the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG 2015).
Woolf (MT) is based in Malta, which has been a member of the European Union since 2004, and of the European Higher Education Area since 2010. Its degrees are fully integrated with the ECTS system, and its degrees and qualifications are recognized throughout Europe under the treaty obligations under the Lisbon Recognition Convention.
ECTS standards are validated by an approved regulatory authority. Woolf works with English-language authorities that implement the ESG 2015. The Malta Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA) implements ESG 2015 with the aim of further promoting quality in further and higher education.
Higher education in Switzerland is regulated both at the level of the Canton and at the Federal level (by the Ordinance of the Higher Education Council on Accreditation within the Higher Education Sector). Higher education in Switzerland places great emphasis on academic freedom and quality.
Woolf (CH) is based in Aargau, which is a canton in Switzerland, between Zurich and Basel. It has an innovation agenda, known for universities of applied sciences, innovation parks, incubation centers, and other resources for supporting research and technology transfer.
Woolf (WI) is based in Wisconsin, which licenses higher education institutions through the Educational Approval Program within the Department of Safety and Professional Services. The EAP ensures that approved schools are well run, educationally sound, and financially stable.
Woolf (WI) is based in the United States of America, which has a system of state licensure and regional or national accreditation through private agencies. The Department of Education does not directly approve of degrees. Foundation for International Services, a non-profit, independent credential evaluator and member of NACES.org since 1987, has evaluated Woolf’s Master in Business Administration and deemed it to be equivalent to one “from a regionally accredited institution in the United States.”
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