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Intro-Outro
Hello and welcome to Building LeadershipCommunity Podcast. I'm your host, Dora Mendez. I am the founder and CEO of Coach Dora LLC. Our guests will be entrepreneurs, small business owners, and community leaders that drive social impact. It can be lonely at the top, but it doesn't have to be.
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Coach Dora
Hello and welcome to Building LeadershipCommunity Podcast. I'm your host, Dora Mendez. Thank you so much to all our listeners and viewers. It means the world to us that you return, week after week to enjoy, the insights and inspiration, that we share with you, with the leaders that we interview. I also want to, if you're new to the podcast, please don't forget to like,
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Coach Dora
share and subscribe.
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Coach Dora
Make sure you hit that button at the bottom of the screen with the little bell on it so you can get a notification and
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Coach Dora
hit that subscribe button. So that you get notified when new content comes up on our channel. So thank you again to all our listeners and viewers. We have a very special show tonight. I'm so grateful to all of you for listening and especially, because we're going to be talking about something very close to my heart, at its core, Building LeadershipCommunity is all about fostering authentic leadership and empowering professionals to build stronger and more engaged communities.
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Coach Dora
Every episode dives into strategies, insights, and personal stories that help leaders navigate their leadership journey with confidence and purpose. This particular episode before I welcome today's guests Lore Barcelona, Executive Director of Sinergia, Inc. I want to share a personal connection to this incredible organization. I'm proud to serve on the Board of Directors of Sinergia, Inc., continuing a relationship that began years ago through its co-founder, Myrta Cuadra Lash.
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Coach Dora
Myrta, now retired, was the former Executive Director. She still remains, a mentor and a dear friend. And her daughter, Christine Cuadra, was my best friend. May she rest in peace. That bond made all the more meaningful. When Myrta invited me to join the board as she was retiring to support Lore's leadership. It was an opportunity to give back in a way that truly mattered.
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Coach Dora
“Sinergia”, means “Synergy”a in Spanish, embodies the power of collaboration, supporting children with autism, developmental disabilities, individuals with traumatic brain injuries and their families. Since 1977, Sinergia has championed underserved communities, providing services, service coordination, advocacy, parent support, housing resources to help families overcome barriers of poverty, discrimination, and lack of access to care. Sinergia is about empowerment, helping families become their strongest advocates, fostering inclusion, equity and the future where every individual has the support they need to thrive.
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Coach Dora
I want to welcome to the stage, of someone who has become a remarkable friend and just a really dynamic and amazing leader. Welcome to the stage at the Building Leadershipcommunity stage. Lore. Barcelona.
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Coach Dora
Hi.
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Lore Barcelona
Hello. Hello. Thank you for having me, Coach Dora. I'm very pleased to be here.
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Coach Dora
We are so happy to have you here, Lore. We're so happy. And especially for me. This means a lot for you to be here with us today.
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Lore Barcelona
Thank you very much.
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Coach Dora
here at Building LeadershipCommunity Podcast. We interview amazing leaders from diverse, organizations, diverse backgrounds, different industries. And so we love to learn a little bit more about you. And for context, I'm going to just read a brief bio for our audience, before we, I hand over the proverbial, mic to you.
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Coach Dora
So, Lore Barcelona is a dedicated and health educator and, and the the Executive Director of Sinergia Inc, advocating for individuals with developmental disabilities in New York City for over 20 years. A certified personal outcome measure POM trainer with a master's degree in Organizational Leadership. She champions community driven strategies to improve health outcomes in and social services. So I've talked a lot.
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Coach Dora
And so I'm I'm going to start it off so we can hear from you. Can you tell our audience and our viewers about your leadership story and what was your career trajectory?
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Lore Barcelona
Oh, goodness. You said a lot in the introduction. Well, I want to say out there that I'm, I'm a little nervous about this conversation, but I was looking forward to this opportunity not only to talk about Sinergia, an organization that I've been working for. That is, I consider family for over 20 something years. Yes. Yeah.
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Lore Barcelona
Just for for context, I was five years old when I started working.
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Coach Dora
Yeah. That's right. And first of all, you know, work with you, lead this organization. You are Executive Director, and you lead with such style and grace. And, I have to, you know, obviously, these are interesting times for people working in health care services. So I want to just share with our audience and viewers, because this this episode is, being recorded in June 2025.
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Coach Dora
But I want to share that the context of which is recording is is not of a the greatest time to be working in health care and to be advocating for people with disabilities, which is unfortunate. Even though it's the law, it's the law of the land to supply funding to children and their families with disabilities, even though it's in the law, in our Constitution, it's legal.
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Coach Dora
There's a legal obligation to do so. It's not a friendly time for, community organizations like Sinergia, who are making a difference in the community for for people with disabilities. So I just want to say you have been handling that with such grace and positivity and, you know, I just want you to know that on behalf of the board and all of the families that we really appreciate, your leadership.
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Lore Barcelona
Thank you very much. It's definitely not a good time to be in the health care. Or. And the people serving, area is very challenging right now. Sinergia has faced, tremendous difficulties for the past three years. However, in the past few months, we've been very nervous. We don't know whether it is, you know, prudent to advocate strongly or follow the mass or follow the, the small group of people who says this is not the way to go.
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Lore Barcelona
So but one thing we keep in mind is that if we don't do it, who else will? If we don't advocate for the needy, we don't advocate for the people with disabilities. If we not, we don't continue to put ourselves in, in the community as an option for service. Then what will we what is it that we're going to have 5 or 6 big organizations that often times cannot identify with the people in the community?
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Lore Barcelona
I feel the Sinergia identifies with the people that they serve very well. So I'm very happy to have to be having this conversation with all of you today.
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Coach Dora
Thank you for sharing that, Lord. Because you are a small, organized, community based organization in East Harlem, here in New York. And I know you service folks in the Bronx as well. Can you share a little bit about how you got to be the leader of this wonderful organization and share a bit about your leadership story, your career trajectory?
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Lore Barcelona
Okay. How do I begin? Well, I can tell you I came to United States, in 1992. Came to this country. I was young, in a wanted to serve people with disabilities. I got connections through a family member, who connected me, actually, to me to Myrta Cuadra Lash and said, you know, we have a young nurse, coming from Honduras, and she probably can work and help teach us skills to the individuals in the program.
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Lore Barcelona
I came in, I didn't speak, no English. I if you if you have a hard time understanding me now, let alone 20 something years ago. But I was driven. I wanted to help people. I understood what was needed, to make the day to day activities of a person with disabilities more meaningful. So we started a day program.
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Lore Barcelona
We started a recreational program. I enjoyed that very much. Singing, dancing. We we were also teaching health skills, proper hand washing, basic, adult daily living skills. This is how I began at Sinergia, a little by little. I kept working, my way, I guess, to different positions. I want to say better position, different positions. And, there were challenges throughout, but I kept positive because my idea was still to to serve people with disabilities.
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Lore Barcelona
This is how I now became the Executive Director, which is, what, 2 or 3 years ago? Yes.
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Coach Dora
So, how many total. So you started there, and then obviously, you got your degrees. You were roles. You got your master's degree. You get your bachelor's degree in English. So I want to lift that up because learning, learning a second language and then go into higher education in a second language is means, you know, just means your your mind is so nimble, and, brilliant.
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Coach Dora
I always want to lift up what a skill it is to speak more than one language. And so you learned English, and then you went and you got your college degree and your master's degree, all while working in different roles and. Yeah, and moving up and moving up and and then about, 2 or 3 years ago, you took over for, and, and because you have been working there so many different roles and you knew all the programs inside and out.
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Coach Dora
Okay, so how many total years is that?
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Lore Barcelona
Oh, God. Dora, you. When you really want to display my years here.
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Lore Barcelona
to tell you, you know, let me just highlight the fact that I also speak another language. And we considered language, apart from the Spanish, which was my second language. I speak a mother tongue, which is Garifuna. I'm a Garifuna woman from Honduras.
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Lore Barcelona
My mother, when I when I grew up, the first language I learned was Garifuna. And then when I became kindergarten age, I went to school. And then I learned Spanish. So in total, I speak three languages. I'm very proud of the fact that, you know, I can communicate with my mom. And I still I'm able to communicate with her in our mother tongue.
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Lore Barcelona
So. Yes. It took me a while. Each one of those positions, challenging, as they were, I think the one that I can tell you I enjoyed the most. It was working in the day habilitation program. From from starting as a DSP, which is Direct Support Professional to then becoming the Director of Day Hab. I was able to witness the changes.
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Lore Barcelona
The each individual who most of the they have aged with me. But I was able to see the changes that they were able to accomplish. Like having a person that comes in and is not able to travel by themselves to having them traveling independently in New York City. You know, that's a challenge. The
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Coach Dora
Yeah.
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Lore Barcelona
moment you enter a bus or a
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Lore Barcelona
train in New York City, prepare for an adventure.
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Lore Barcelona
So if you have a disability, it's more challenging, right? But it's also a wonderful achievement. So I think working as a day hab was my my best my best years. I will
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Coach Dora
So what? Well, your best years are yet to come. But I want to. I want to share what I love about what you said was what's what's magical about Sinergia and why community based organizations that provide human services so important is that you provide it across the lifespan of the client. So you start with children, and then they grow up in and you support them throughout their lifespan.
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Coach Dora
And that is what makes Sinergia so special.
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Lore Barcelona
Yes, definitely. Definitely will work with children. You know, right now we have a program with these which is geared for children with autism. We working not only with the child to ensure that, he or she or she is, evaluated properly to see what services they can provide. We also have the ability to work with the parents and get them prepared to advocate in the school system for their children.
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Lore Barcelona
You know, having it empowering a parent is the best thing that you can do because then you are influencing you the life of that child., ongoingly. Because that parent is the person that will be there. This is where we talk about the synergy as, as you was mentioning before. Which is a connect and our connection, we believe it is the organization and the parents or the person receiving services.
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Coach Dora
Thank you for sharing that. So I you. I love that you shared a little bit about your heritage in, in Honduras. I love I love that, and that you're trilingual. Can you. If you were to give yourself. We ask all our guests, to share what advice would they give their younger self, or next gen or what advice would you give the next generation of leaders?
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Lore Barcelona
I can do both. And I'm going to tell you the talking to my younger self. I think I will tell my younger self. Take it easy. Don't be so anxious. It will be okay. I will, I will say pace yourself. I think I have, I had, I've been through challenges. The fact that I went to school in Honduras in a Maria Montessori school, which was,
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Lore Barcelona
I was the only little black girl in the whole school. And I didn't know. I didn't know that I was the only black girl I was over overachiever, and but I was always anxious, trying to do the next best thing. Impress. I guess my mother and everybody else. And, I think I would tell my younger self.
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Lore Barcelona
Relax a little bit. Enjoy. Pace yourself through it into
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Coach Dora
That's great advice.
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Lore Barcelona
To the future generations, the same thing. Pace yourself through it. Pace yourself through everything that you put yourself. I will say love yourself. Be kind to yourself. Because I think we missing a lot of that. Constantly competing with somebody else. Either
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Lore Barcelona
for things that are in, in the, in the social media or what people are expecting or what we're not meeting. So to the future leaders, leaders, I will say, pace yourself while you're doing good for yourself and others.
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Coach Dora
And love this. Be kind to yourself. Give yourself some grace. And I feel like that lends itself to like being in the moment. Like be more present in the moment. I think that's great advice. Be more present in the moment. And it's good advice not only to your, your younger self, but also to yourself, now, because you mentioned how nervous you were about being here and there's no reason, for you, it's great.
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Coach Dora
You have you, you know, I just I love and the opportunity to, support you and highlight you as a leader. But because I get from you just grace and calm through really turbulent times. And I think that people look to leaders on how to, how to react. And you have just been really graceful and you've tuned out all the noise while being very realistic about the challenges.
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Coach Dora
So I just want to thank you for your leadership and sort of being that steady a ship during these very hectic times.
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Lore Barcelona
Thank you. Thank you.
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Coach Dora
So.
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Lore Barcelona
you see me with that loving kind? That's why I. You see you. You're saying all those things is been challenging and used. I think the preparation for the whole, process is were what makes me anxious. But, yeah, once I'm in the moment, the output is what I intend. So thank you very much for your kind
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Coach Dora
You deserve it. They're all true. So can you share with our, audience in our in our listeners how they can, be in touch with you, how they can learn more about Sinergia and learn more about you.
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Lore Barcelona
Definitely: SinergiaNY.org is our website. They can contact us. We are located in East Harlem at 2082 Lexington Avenue in the fourth floor. You can come in anytime. We have. We have an open door policy. We believe that, in order to serve the community, you got to be in the community.
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Lore Barcelona
You have to work with people. You have to let people feel welcomed. In Sinergia everyone is welcomed. And you can come in anytime. This is how you can get in touch with me. You can also email me any concerns or any way that I can participate in other, events in order to assist, our mission and vision at Sinergia.
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Lore Barcelona
I'm more open
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Coach Dora
So thank you for that. You also have a great Facebook group. And you have a really wonderful team that helps, organize it. So you can also find Sinergia on Facebook. They put so many pictures of their programs, graduations, gatherings, milestones of, of the program participants. I just love seeing, especially the graduations. So there's just such great, it really is, like you said, like a family.
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Coach Dora
It's a lot of love there. So thank you. I want to thank all our listeners and viewers again. Lore, I want to thank you so much. Don't forget, to like, share and subscribe here at the Building LeadershipCommunity Podcast. Thank you so much.
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Intro-Outro
You've been listening to Building LeadershipCommunity. Watch on YouTube @CoachDoraM. Listen, wherever you get your podcast, follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube @CoachDoraM. Visit me on the web at CoachDoraMendez.com. Hosted by me, Dora Mendez. Produced by Dora Mendez and Dylan Rogers. Graphics, editing, and sound mixing by Dylan Rogers.
