Lorea’s noble goal is to develop emotionally intelligent schools: places where children, youth and adults feel safe, included and connected with the world around them. In order to meet this goal, Lorea supports schools to implement Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs and teaches educators the principles of emotional intelligence. Her favorite emotions are curiosity, courage and serenity.  

Lorea approaches the implementation of SEL programs with the expertise of a practitioner and the rigor of a researcher. A former special education teacher, Lorea has served students and adults in Spain, Nicaragua, and California, and has led several successful innovative initiatives in schools. She developed the first Special Education Program for 8 charter schools in the San Francisco-Bay Area and created a training-of-trainers program to enable 500+ school data leaders to interpret student achievement results to make instructional decisions.

Lorea’s doctoral dissertation received highest honors from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and won the 2014 Graduate Student Award for Excellence in SEL Research from the American Association of Educational Research (AERA). A testimony of the impact SEL can have on students and teachers, her research identifies the conditions that make SEL implementation possible in schools. Lorea is an active member of the SEL research community, currently conducting research on school climate, SEL implementation and school principals’ emotional intelligence. She is part of the leadership committee at AERA’s SEL Special Interest Group.

A published author, Lorea’s work can be found in the International Journal of Emotional Education, the Advances in SEL Research, the Manual de Orientación y Tutoría, and the well-known educational website Edutopia. She frequently blogs about how to incorporate SEL in teaching practices.

Lorea is a big fan of Bossa Nova, school supplies and salsa dancing. She has two daughters, Teresa and Clara.