Cornell University

Faculty Member, College of Human Ecology

About

Dr. Derek Cabrera is an internationally recognized expert in thinking skills and metacognition. He is an active scientist, entrepreneur and teacher. He is senior faculty of the Research Institute for Thinking in Education and President and Founder of ThinkWorks. He holds a PhD from Cornell University and served as faculty at Cornell, where he taught the graduate-level course on systems thinking. He was also a research fellow at the Santa Fe Institute for the study of complex systems. He has presented nationally and internationally on the importance of metacognition (thinking about one's thinking) and various educational topics. He has presented his research nationally and internationally on educational topics, thinking skills, and learning. He has worked extensively with teachers and senior staff in districts throughout the United States.

He was National Science Foundation Post Doctoral Fellow as well as a National Science Foundation IGERT Fellow in Nonlinear Systems at Cornell. His research focuses on systems thinking and thinking universals and is grounded in interdisciplinary work in nonlinear and systems sciences, evolutionary biology, cognition, human learning, and organizational design. Derek was awarded the Association of American Colleges and Universities' K. Patricia Cross Future Educational Leaders Award and was profiled in the book, Heroes of Giftedness.

His research led to the development of two paradigm-shifting models: VMCL and DSRP. He holds a U.S. Patent for the "DSRP Method" that underlies the design of both ThinkBlocks (a tactile tool he invented that teaches advanced thinking skills to children and adults) and the DSRP Diagramming Method (a visual idea mapping technique). Derek's "VMCL Method" is a robust framework for conceptualizing, leading, and managing an adaptive learning organization through systems thinking.

Derek is the author of numerous books, book chapters, peer-reviewed journals articles, and whitepapers and his research has been profiled in refereed journals, trade magazines, and popular publications. His VMCL and DSRP models are used in businesses, NGOs, government agencies, school districts, universities, and business schools around the world.

Derek worked for over a decade both nationally and internationally as a mountain climbing guide with Outward Bound and other organizations. An avid adventure traveler and arm-chair anthropologist, he has led high-altitude climbing expeditions to the world's most remote mountain regions and visited tribal communities around the world. As a social entrepreneur, Derek led fundraising efforts to establish the Aceh Relief Fund for victims of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and cofounded Children of Rural Africa to develop orphanage schools in Nigeria.

He brings his array of diverse experiences as a mountain climber, educator, scientist, and entrepreneur to bear in his dynamic workshops for educators.

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