Founding Partners
Carmen Ramón Grau
Founding Partner – Spain
Carmen Ramón Grau is General Manager and Coordinator of Centro de Estudios Futuro, based in Callosa de Segura, Spain. She holds a degree in Early Childhood Education and a DECA certification from Universidad Católica San Antonio (UCAM), advanced specializations in Neuroeducation and Giftedness from Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (UFV), and a Master’s degree in Educational Neuropsychology from UNIR.
With more than ten years of experience leading educational projects, Carmen has specialized in learning difficulties and childhood behavioral disorders, a focus that brings GEL a clinically grounded, rigorous perspective on early childhood development. Her achievements include successfully directing her own educational center for a decade, developing a proprietary mobile app for educational management, and creating virtual instructional content adapted for diverse learning needs.
Internationally, Carmen has coordinated educational cooperation projects in Honduras and collaborated with organizations such as International ECE. Today, she leads Spain’s representation as a Founding Partner of Global Early Leadership (GEL), bringing the human readiness standard to Spanish-speaking educational institutions across Europe.
Languages: Spanish, English
Boris Braulio Santos Acostupa
Founding Partner · Peru
Boris Braulio Santos Acostupa is Founder and Director of Multilingual School in Cusco, Peru. He holds a degree in Administration and Tourism, is a specialist in andragogy and the CEFE methodology for adult education, and earned his MBA from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
With more than 25 years of experience in human development, education, and international cooperation, Boris has worked as an internal consultant, external consultant, and instructor for the Inter-American Development Bank, in addition to collaborating with the United Nations Development Programme, government agencies, and various NGOs. His career includes literacy, entrepreneurship, and social and economic development projects with vulnerable communities in Cusco, the Sacred Valley, Puno, and other regions of southern Peru, as well as educational programs for at-risk adolescents and youth.
After witnessing South America’s inequalities up close, he came to understand that sustainable transformation had to begin in early childhood. In 2018, he founded Multilingual School, a pioneering model built on full English immersion starting at age two, holistic child development, and structured instruction in Quechua, an approach that connects directly with GEL’s mission of taking human readiness seriously from the earliest years of life.
As Founding Partner of Global Early Leadership (GEL) in Peru, Boris brings a Latin American perspective grounded in real field experience, connecting early childhood, multilingualism, inclusion, cultural identity, and community development to turn social challenges into real educational opportunities.
Languages: Spanish, English, Quechua
Maritza Isabel Barahona Ponce
Founding Partner · Honduras
Maritza Isabel Barahona Ponce is a Primary Education Teacher, holds a degree in Social Sciences, and a Master’s degree in Curriculum. Her professional career includes teaching at Centro Educativo Gubernamental Polivalente Germania and serving as Technical Assistant at the General Directorate of Curriculum and Evaluation of the Honduran Secretariat of Education. She is a member of the Colegio de Profesores de Educación Media (COPEMH) and chairs the Honduras Chapter of the Association of Educators of Latin America and the Caribbean (AELAC).
At the national level, she led the coordination of the curriculum review and update strategy for Pre-Basic, Basic, and Middle education levels in Honduras (2021–2023), contributed to Honduras’ Education Sector Strategic Plan 2018–2030, and developed methodological guides on equity culture. She is the author of the ninth-grade Social Sciences and Civic Education textbook published by Editorial Santillana, as well as methodological guides on human rights for Basic and Middle education levels work that brings GEL a curricular foundation already proven at national scale.
Her pedagogical leadership is reflected in her ongoing participation in international forums: conferences on pedagogy, neuroscience, and technology in Guatemala, Ecuador, and Cuba; peace and education gatherings in Mexico; the Regional Conference on Women of Latin America and the Caribbean in Argentina; discussions on the 2030 SDGs; university evaluation seminars in El Salvador; inclusive education workshops in Nicaragua; pedagogical conferences in Guatemala; the V Latin American Congress in Venezuela; and a diploma program in Adult and Youth Education in Tampa, Florida.
As Founding Partner of Global Early Leadership (GEL) in Honduras, Maritza brings together research, instructional authorship, public curriculum management, and professional advocacy across Ibero-America offering GEL a policy perspective built from inside the education system itself.