Eliza Ramos

Founder and CEO, Circles International

Eliza Ramos is the Founder and CEO of Circles International (CI). She is CI’s principal leadership and organizational development consultant. An award winning social entrepreneur, activist, healer, and advocate for social justice, Eliza launched CI in 2017 to begin building a movement for emotional health and wellbeing amongst leaders and organizations working toward peace and social justice. During her previous career as a social worker and global health practitioner, she witnessed a high rate of fatigue and burnout. She realized a direct link between the wellbeing of a leader and organization, and the impact they were either able or not able to make in their communities. She began to focus her energy on cultivating wellness and resilience circles for those in high-impact, service-oriented leadership roles, and, soon after, CI was born.

Prior to CI, she worked as a counselor and facilitator with the New York Presbyterian Hospital and as a strategic and programmatic consultant to the United Nations in New York and India, in both global wellbeing and health programs. Other past work includes consulting for various global governmental and non-governmental organizations in the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya. In 2012, she was selected for a Global Health Corps fellowship working with Partners in Health as a FACE AIDS Program Manager in Rwanda. After her fellowship, she joined the Global Health Corps staff to expand opportunities for their growing community of emerging leaders.

In 2012, she was awarded a Women in Leadership fellowship and Davis Projects for Peace grant for her work in healing and activism. Her writing and research has been published by the United Nations, North Shore LIJ Hospital, AIDS Center for Queens County, and the Columbia Social Work Review. She is proficient in Spanish and enjoys cross-cultural learning and exchange.

Eliza holds an M.P.H. from Harvard University, an M.S.W. from Columbia University, and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Southern California. She is certified in mediation and conflict resolution training, wilderness emergency medicine, and Reiki. Originally from Beaverton, Oregon, she currently resides in Oakland, California, where she enjoys being part of the Bay Area’s arts, healing and activism communities.