Principals/Owners/Key Leadership Team

A native of Bogotá, Colombia, Marcela graduated from high school in Charlotte, North Carolina, and earned a bachelor’s degree in advertising from Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Bogotá. Following graduation, Marcela moved to Miami, Florida to work as advertising coordinator with Editorial Unilit and as a member of the Expolit (Spanish-language Christian literature trade show) leadership team. In 1996 she joined Thomas Nelson Publisher’s Spanish language division in Nashville, Tennessee as a sales representative and later was promoted to marketing director.

Prior to co-founding the Culture Shift Team, Marcela was founder and CEO of Hispanic Marketing Group, which, from its inception in 2002, became a leading full-service bilingual and bicultural marketing and communications agency. Currently, she leads CST's strategic multicultural marketing and public relations division, offering counsel and services to consumers, corporates, and nonprofit clients.

Between 2016 and 2019 she served as a commissioner of the Metro Nashville and Davidson County Human Relations Commission. In 2015 she founded the Entrepreneur Latina Leaders of America organization (ELLA) to serve Latina women micro-entrepreneurs in Middle Tennessee. From 2014 to 2018, she served as president and board chair of the Tennessee Latin American Chamber of Commerce in Nashville. Marcela is a member of the 2016 Leadership Nashville Class and the 2017 Leadership Nashville Class logistics team. She enjoys traveling, films, theater, ballet, opera, and the symphony. She has a 30-year-old son, Esteban Pedraza, who is an award-winning film director residing in Brooklyn, NY.

Ann Gillespie is an innovative business and social entrepreneur with 20 years of experience creating community within diverse markets. Her consulting and training work spans industries from automotive, retail, and nonprofits to the top domestic airline, healthcare, and insurance.

Ann designs signature community outreach programs for our CST clients. She developed and leads training for the MULTICULTURAL LENS series, a tool to help organizations improve their cultural agility.

In 2013, Ann received the Diversity Leadership Award from the Middle Tennessee Society for Human Resource Management (MT|SHRM). She serves on the board of directors for college access and success organizations and led a public-private partnership to create FUTURO, Inc., a Latinx college student association. Ann holds a bachelor's degree in Latin American Studies from Vanderbilt University in Nashville and a TEFL certification from Winfield College in Vancouver.

Robert Lawrence Wilson is a speaker, facilitator, and writer with expertise in diversity management, multicultural marketing, customer experience strategy, and leadership development. He leads the CST "soup-to-nuts" diversity strategy development, training and customer experience strategy in corporate, retail and nonprofit environments.

Before coming to CST, Robert served in executive roles at Nissan North America, including as the company’s first Director of Diversity and Inclusion and as Director of Customer Experience. He developed and led Nissan's diversity practice and multicultural market strategy for the Americas.

Robert serves on leadership boards of three nonprofit organizations promoting greater access to quality education for our nation's most at-risk student population. Rob is also co-founder of the Tennessee Diversity Consortium. Robert holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in business administration from Duke University.

Robert leads the Tennessee Diversity Consortium, serves on the board of KIPP Nashville and FUTURO Inc., and is a trainer with Greek University.