2024 WLCW Valerie Landau

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Mission College’s Women in Leadership celebration recognizes women, including women of color, who have had a profound impact on the world and/or in their fields.
Award recipients were selected because their leadership provides a positive influence in their communities and their commitment to making a difference in the world makes them an important example to others -- clearly demonstrating the importance of women in leadership positions.
Award Recipients
Valerie Landau grew up in the 1960s and 70s, and was immersed in a world of social and political upheaval from a young age. Her formative years were shaped by her progressive education and her parents' journalistic missions to Cuba. After graduating from University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1979, she went to Nicaragua to work on the planning and implementation of the National Literacy Campaign with Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. She then served as Regional Director Northern Managua.
Upon her return to the United States 1981, amid the Contra wars in Central America, she produced the film, Back From Nicaragua, a compelling documentary. In the mid 1980s she was hired by the San Jose, PBS TV station as Associate Producer of a Peabody Award-winning series, Silicon Valley. She was immersed in the high-tech world of industry leaders and forged a lifelong bond with computer visionary, Douglas Engelbart. They co-taught courses on Augmenting Human Intellect, presented at international conferences, and co-founded a company together.
Her career took twists and turns, ranging from multimedia design and educational technology to working as a guide and field producer for documentaries. She returned to Cuba frequently working for CBS’s 60 Minutes with Harry Reasoner and Lowell Bergman, for German public TV, and with her father, renowned filmmaker and journalist, Saul Landau. Since 1987, she has led over twenty delegations and film crews to Cuba to foster understanding between the American and Cuban people and supports sustainable development projects in Cuba.
After graduating from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, she became an Educational Game Designer, creating several award-winning games. She served as Associate Professor at California State University, Monetary Bay and as Director of Assessment of Educational Effectiveness at Samuel Merritt University. She is the author of dozens of publications on new forms of assessment and educational effectiveness.
She has written dozens of articles and conference presentations and was asked by Smithsonian Magazine to write the article "How Douglas Engelbart Invented the Future." Landau is currently consulting on reimagining education for a generative AI-infused world and on experimenting with 3D immersive worlds as venues for education. She is also still organizing delegations to Cuba, supporting the Cuban people.