Hola, I’m Marielena Marroquin!

I am a cultural strategist, political advisor, and public speaker rooted in Puerto Rican identity and liberation work.

I help bridge lived experience with legislative change using vulnerability, storytelling, and ancestral wisdom to shift the narrative, build coalitions, and create culturally grounded policy solutions.

I am also the founder of Cultura Consultants KC & KC Latina Book Club, where I create spaces for resistance & radical joy.

Work with Me

About our Founder

Marielena Marroquin is a recent Master of Public Administration (MPA) graduate from the University of Kansas, where she strengthened her expertise in public administration, nonprofit management, policy, and law. She has proudly called the Kansas City Metropolitan area home for the past decade, deeply rooting her professional and personal journey in the community she now serves.

As a cultural strategist and the founder of Cultura Consultants KC, Marielena brings both vision and practicality to the spaces she enters. Her work is centered on helping organizations and communities discover who they are, what they stand for, and how they can align their mission with meaningful action. She is particularly passionate about fostering authentic connections across diverse communities and guiding others to uncover their own cultural grounding and voice in these conversations.

Her leadership transcends traditional DEI initiatives by weaving together authentic community listening sessions, comprehensive strategic planning, and adaptive projects that reflect the lived realities of those they serve. At the heart of her work is a commitment to cultural responsiveness, genuine engagement, and empowering others to not only ask “Who am I?” but also to act boldly on the answer.

My Approach

Community Engagement

Focusing on the three tenants of Community engagement: collaboration, consultation, and communication.

  1. Collaboration: We collaborate with community members and organizations to create engagement projects, ensuring active participation and shared ownership of initiatives.

  2. Consultation: We conduct culturally responsive listening sessions to authentically understand and elevate diverse community voices, ensuring our strategies resonate with and reflect actual community needs.

  3. Communication: We maintain open, transparent, and continuous dialogue with all stakeholders, fostering trust and ensuring that our adaptive solutions are informed by and responsive to the unique dynamics of the community.

Beyond DEI

Cultura Consultants KC goes beyond traditional DEI and translation efforts by embedding culturally responsive and adaptive solutions into every aspect of community engagement and strategic planning, ensuring genuine and impactful connections.

  1. Deep Cultural Integration: We don't just focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion; we deeply integrate cultural responsiveness into our methodologies, recognizing and honoring the unique cultural dynamics of each community we serve.

  2. Adaptive Solutions: Our strategies are not static. We continuously adapt and evolve our approaches based on ongoing community feedback and cultural insights, ensuring our solutions are both relevant and effective.

  3. Empowered Participation: We move beyond mere translation by fostering authentic, empowered participation from community members, ensuring that their voices drive the development and implementation of initiatives.

  4. Sustainable Impact: Our focus is on creating lasting, sustainable impact by aligning organizational goals with the true needs and values of the community, ensuring long-term success and mutual growth.

Our Services

  • Speaking Engagments

    Bring your event to life with keynote speaking that inspires, uplifts, and sparks meaningful dialogue. I weave together powerful storytelling, cultural competency, and actionable insights to create experiences that resonate long after the event ends. Each engagement is designed to motivate audiences, honor diverse perspectives, and ignite conversations that lead to lasting impact.

  • Strategic Planning

    Strengthen your organization’s future with strategic planning that is both visionary and actionable. I partner with you to clarify goals, align values, and design pathways that foster collaboration and long-term impact. By blending cultural competency with innovative thinking, I ensure strategies are not only practical but also rooted in equity, inclusion, and community voice. The result is a plan that motivates stakeholders, inspires trust, and drives meaningful, sustained success.

  • Coaching & Workshops

    Transform leadership and team culture through personalized coaching and dynamic workshops. Grounded in adaptive leadership principles and cultural competency, these sessions create space for reflection, growth, and collaboration. Whether 1:1 or in group settings, my approach strengthens leadership skills, deepens trust, and equips teams with strategies to drive lasting organizational change.

  • Public Policy & Campaign Advising

    Harness the power of values-driven leadership to shape policy and inspire action. I help leaders, advocates, and campaigns center community voices, elevate stories that matter, and design strategies that honor equity and justice. Rooted in cultural competency and lived experience, this work builds movements that advance policy goals while nurturing trust, belonging, and shared purpose. Together, we create change that lasts beyond a single election or policy win.

Get in Touch!

Schedule a free 1:1 discovery call with me to discuss your organizations needs

Book Consultation

OUR LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Cultura Consultants KC acknowledges that our work takes place on the ancestral homelands of the Kaw (Kanza or Kansa), Jiwere (Otoe), Nutachi (Missouria), and Wahzhazhe (Osage) Nations and Peoples. We honor the elders, both past and present, and this calls us to commit to continuing to learn their stories as well as how to be better stewards of the land that we occupy.