VANIA  is an award-winning global keynote speaker and the founder of Dancin Power, a nonprofit organization that improves the quality of life of hospitalized children and their families through the healing power of music, movement, and mindfulness.

While hospitals focus primarily on physical recovery, the emotional and psychosocial needs of young patients are often overlooked. Hospitalization can leave children with invisible wounds: anxiety, trauma, even PTSD. Dancin Power addresses these gaps by integrating trauma-informed, joy-centered experiences that support emotional healing and help children reclaim their sense of agency and hope.

Vania has inspired audiences across the United States, Europe, South America, and Australia. She has spoken at the British Medical Journal’s International Forum, Stanford Medicine X, Albert Einstein Hospital’s Latin America Summit, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ), Kaiser Permanente, UC Berkeley, and other leading forums. Her story has been featured on HuffPost, NBC, NowThis and other global platforms.

She holds a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in Expressive Arts Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. After immigrating from Brazil, she became the first in her family to earn a graduate degree and went on to create Flexing Perseverance™, a framework that teaches individuals and teams how to strengthen perseverance like a muscle. Her work is grounded in emotional intelligence, brain science, and the real-world resilience it takes to rebuild a life after hardship.

Using her own Flexing Perseverance™ framework, Vania rebuilt Dancin Power, the nonprofit she founded 19 years ago, after a total pandemic shutdown that nearly caused it to fold. With hospitals closed, funding frozen, and her team scattered, she had every reason to give up. Instead, she chose to fight for its mission. What began as a near-collapse became a resurrection, reigniting a movement that continues to empower children through joy, expression, and connection.

She reclaimed her health after serious illness and returned to her purpose with renewed fire following a season of burnout and self-doubt.  She has delivered keynotes to audiences of over 5,000 across four continents, leaving people on their feet, reconnected to their purpose,   and ready to lead with heart. She doesn’t just speak about perseverance; she lives it. And she teaches others how to do the same.

Now based in California, Vania brings her unstoppable energy and trauma-informed heart into every room she enters, leaving people moved, inspired, and ready to flex their own perseverance with purpose and joy.