Maria Socorro L. Romabiles

I'm currently an adjunct professor at the Asian Institute of Management in Manila. I crafted a course called Art-Science Thinking based on my dissertation on Culture as Transformative Innovation: Filipino Care in the Practice of Family Medicine. Since 2017, my consultancy & studio has been collaborating with the Dept. of Science & Technology in the Philippines.

Maria Socorro L. Romabiles, PhD | [email protected]

Corinne is a research fellow of the Science, Engineering & Management Research Institute (SEMRI) of the University of Asia & the Pacific (UA&P) and is a UA&P part-time professor of Nation Branding & Cultural Diplomacy at the Political Economy Program and Design Thinking at the Information Technology Department.

Her on-going study on Art-Science Thinking has brought her to Harvard Univ., Case Western Reserve Univ. (2015) and Silicon Valley tech-companies like Google, Intel & MIPS in 2012 – 2018. She was a professor of art & communication among Engineering, Science, Multimedia Arts, IT & Business students in Mapúa University from 2010 to 2020. Presently, she’s an Art-Science and AI consultant of Mapua Schools.

Corinne has been in Education for 28 years and had stints in San Beda Univ., Univ. of San Agustin, PAREF Woodrose & SOFA Design Institute. She is a member of the State Universities & Colleges Teacher Educators Association (SUCTEA, Inc.) and is an affiliate of the International Futures Forum (IFF) Scotland and a partner of Project Reboot USA, a digital detox & healthy tech-habits program for teens.

In 2017, she crafted the AghamArte Program, an Art Studies and Ideation Lab training for STEM teachers & professionals to assist K12 and Higher Education Institutions to transition to Smart Schools equipped with 21st Century Curriculum and prepared for digital transformation. In 2021, she trained heads of State Univ. & Colleges in Art-Science Thinking under the AIM-CHED’s Global Academic Leadership Program. Today, AghamArte is running at the West Visayas State Univ. in Iloilo City and the TESDA Directors’ Training of the Bayan Innovation Academy.

Currently, she is also an adjunct faculty of the Master in Innovation & Business Program (MIB) of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) where she teaches a course she authored on Art-Science Thinking. In 2019, she crafted a program called Branding Things Filipino under the School of Executive Education & Lifelong Learning (AIM) with 2 areas of focus: Filipino Branding for the Global Market and Corporate Branding for Filipino Companies.

Among groups that have attended her Philippine Branding course include San Miguel Corporation, the Dept. of Tourism, UPV College of Fisheries & Ocean Sciences, Converge ICT, National Commission for Culture & the Arts, Lazada, Petron, Bank of Commerce, Unilab, Cocolife, National Museum, Philippine Consulates in the US, Letran College of Business, PAREF Schools, CSB Taft, and other companies & schools around the country.

She is the Founder & Creative Director of Studio Idiyanale (2017), a digital media studio & laboratory that focuses on styling things Filipino, science communication and factual entertainment.

The studio’s recent clients include the DOST-Philippine Council for Health Research & Development (PCHRD), Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI), Inc., UP Manila’s Tech-Transfer & Business Development Office (TTBDO), the e-platform GO-Philippines, Punlaan School Foundation, Chito Madrigal Foundation, the Province of Bataan & Astra-Zeneca. She had also been a consultant of Rebisco, the Province of Bataan, Casa Juan and fintech start-ups like PearlPay & NextPay, Marlow Navigation and the Lopez Group.

At present, she does the branding of the Philippine Academy of Family Physicians (PAFP) & has a Dept. of Foreign Affairs Soft Power Research with the EON Public Relations Agency and collaborates with the Palafox Associates for International Expo projects.

In 2021, she completed her PhD in Philippine Studies, major in International Relations at the Asian Center, UP-Diliman (UPD). Her dissertation was on Culture as Transformative Innovation: ‘Paglingap’ in the Practice of Family Medicine in the Philippines. She took her MA Art Studies (2012), major in Art History in UPD where she pioneered a study on the History of the Philippine Souvenir Store & Filipiniana Displays. She acquired her AB Degree in General Humanities at the University of Asia and the Pacific in 1994.

She trained in Visual Merchandising, Branding & Advertising at the Fashion School of the Academy of Arts in San Francisco, California in 2012 & 2015. She freelances as a Visual Merchandiser & has worked for SM Dept. Stores, JAG, Levis, Dockers, Tesoro’s Inc., the DTI’s One-Town, One-Product Project and specializes in retail atmospherics & window displays for Philippine Souvenir Stores.

Her research on Nation Branding began in Italy, where she lived from 2003 -2006 to study Philosophy and to complete an AB Theology degree at the Pontificia Universita della Santa Croce, Rome.

Corinne spent her high-school days at the Assumption College -San Lorenzo and grew up in Rizal’s neighborhood in Calamba, Laguna.