Zaid Cardenas Zuniga
About
With over 10 years of experience designing and scaling learning solutions across corporate, educational, and community contexts, I bring a strong foundation in learning design, combined with hands-on experience in prototyping, piloting, and iterating learning innovations with a strong interest in future learning frameworks that promote flexibility, learner agency, and interdisciplinary thinking.
Work Experience
Educational Researcher
Translated educational research into actionable insights to support policy recommendations, assessment frameworks, and inclusive learning strategies. Designed analytics tools from 478 national studies, contributed to large-scale cognitive and psychosocial assessment initiatives, and co-authored peer-reviewed publications advancing inclusive and technology-based educational interventions.
Research Professor Psychology
Designed and led research-informed educational initiatives advancing literacy, inclusion, and learner development across diverse populations. Secured competitive research funding, supervised thesis projects with a 95% completion rate, and delivered lectures and workshops on learning sciences and organisational behaviour with consistently high teaching evaluations.Designed and led research-informed educational initiatives advancing literacy, inclusion, and learner development across diverse populations. Secured competitive research funding, supervised thesis projects with a 95% completion rate, and delivered lectures and workshops on learning sciences and organisational behaviour with consistently high teaching evaluations.
L&D Director
Directed the design and scale-up of a competency-based learning ecosystem enabling seamless progression from vocational and upper secondary education into professional, business, and workforce development pathways. Directed the full innovation cycle from pilot prototyping, curriculum development, and instructional design to participatory iteration and implementation delivering a multimodal learning model across eight campuses, multiple orgainzations and online environments serving 2,000+ working adults annually. The educational model integrated modular pathways, workplace-based learning, and flexible delivery approaches, later expanding into customised professionalisation programmes for the Department of National Defense, GNP Insurance, and FEMSA Mexico. Through rapid prototyping and data-informed iteration, these initiatives achieved certification rates above 85% while creating scalable and learner-centered learning systems.
Experimental Lerning Initiative
Developed and iterated innovative learning ecosystems using participatory design, rapid prototyping, and mixed-method evaluation to enhance socio-emotional capability, learner agency, and community engagement. Designed scalable interventions across diverse contexts, achieving up to 40% improvement in emotional regulation while embedding experimentation and reflective practice into facilitation models.
Education
Masters
Led a mixed-methods research project examining how masculinity ideology shapes the psychological integration of immigrants in the Netherlands. Collected and analysed data from 136 participants across five nationalities, conducted stakeholder interviews, and applied multivariate analysis to investigate the relationship between traditional masculine values, education, and wellbeing outcomes.