Niña Terol-Zialcita | Image used with permission from OPT Philippines
Niña has been writing for as long as she can remember, starting with her grandfather’s rickety typewriter and eventually immersing herself in both print and online publishing. She confesses to be an odd mix of the pure and the profane, loving politics just as passionately as she loves paintings and poetry, immersing herself daily in Facebook and Twitter just as much as she does in the issues that move people’s lives.
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Niña describes herself as a “communicator, connector, idea curator, and changemaker.” Aside from being a co-founder of Writer’s Block Philippines, she was formerly editor-in-chief of asianTraveler, the Philippines’ longest-running travel magazine, and is currently President and Deputy Editor of ProPinoy.net, winner of the 2010 Philippine Blog Awards for the Society, History, and Politics category. Her work has been published in the dailies Manila Bulletin and Philippine Daily Inquirer; in the glossies asianTraveler, Condo Living, Cosmopolitan Philippines, Expat Travel & Lifestyle, Illustrado, Maven, MEGA, Metro, Metro Society, MyHome, Spark, Starfish, Travelife, Vault; and in the travel websites ClicktheCity.com, OfficiallyPhilippines.com, and CNNGo.com. Niña has also written books and publications published by the Asian Development Bank, the Direct Selling Association of the Philippines, the National Youth Commission, and the TAYO Awards Foundation.
More than all these, Niña is a communications strategist and advocate who uses her wide range of skills, experiences, and interests to connect the dots and cook up messaging and branding ideas that infect audiences and markets, inciting them to positive action. She is a familiar name in the lecture circuit, speaking on communications, social media, leadership, and social change. In 2010, she had a “grand slam” year in the speaking circuit after having been invited to speak at all three of Manila’s most-coveted events, Ignite Manila, Pecha Kucha Night, and TEDxManila. In 2011, she was recognized as a finalist in the first-ever Tatt Awards (“The Advocate” category) for her advocacy platform, Changemakers Philippines.
Niña graduated with a Communications degree, minor in Hispanic Studies, at the Ateneo de Manila University. She also studied under scholarships at the Asian Institute of Management (Professional Blogging and Internet Marketing) in Manila and the European Journalism Institute in Prague, Czech Republic. When she is not writing, blogging, or changemaking, she is creating art and performing poetry with her husband, percussionist and performance artist Paul Zialcita. You may follow her “journey of authenticity and abundance” in Little Rich Girl <www.littlerichgirlblog.com>.
