"I didn't come to this work through a textbook. I came to it by watching what happens inside organizations when culture is left to chance — when good people burn out, when leadership and staff stop speaking the same language, when the mission on the wall no longer matches the experience in the hallway.
Over the years, I've had the privilege of working alongside organizational systems navigating real, difficult change. I've sat in rooms with executive teams trying to figure out why they keep losing their best people. I've facilitated conversations where staff said out loud what everyone had been thinking for years. I've watched organizations go from reactive and exhausted to intentional and aligned — not because someone handed them a playbook, but because they did the hard work of looking honestly at their culture and deciding to build something better.
That's what drives Kuxtal Consulting. The name "Kuxtal" comes from the Mayan word for life, vitality, and living with purpose. It reflects what I believe sits at the heart of every healthy organization: a living culture that is nurtured intentionally, not something that just happens to you.
I started this practice because I saw a gap. Small and mid-size organizations — the ones closest to their communities, the ones doing the most with the least — rarely have access to the kind of strategic, culturally responsive culture work that larger institutions take for granted. I wanted to change that. I wanted to build something that meets organizations where they are, respects who they serve, and helps them create workplaces where people actually want to stay.
I bring my whole self to this work — my I-O Psychology training, my experience facilitating across cultures and languages, my belief that data and heart are not opposites, and my deep respect for the communities my clients serve. Whether I'm conducting an organizational culture assessment, coaching a leadership team through a difficult transition, or helping an organization build communication systems that actually hold — I'm in it with you.
About the Founder
Gaby Cadena is an organizational culture consultant, facilitator, and the founder of Kuxtal Consulting LLC. With a background in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and years of hands-on experience guiding complex culture change across healthcare, education, child welfare, juvenile justice, and human services, she brings a rare combination of behavioral science expertise, frontline consulting experience, and deep cultural fluency to every engagement. She works in both English and Spanish with specialized knowledge across Mexican and broader Latin American cultural contexts.
Credentials & Experience
Gaby's professional background includes organizational culture assessment and diagnosis using the OCAI (Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument), training and workshop program design and facilitation, C-suite and senior leadership coaching on culture alignment and sustainable change, conflict resolution and communication systems development, culturally responsive training material development in English and Spanish, and post-implementation consulting to help organizations sustain momentum long after the initial engagement ends.
She has worked across healthcare, education, child welfare, juvenile justice, behavioral health, corrections, and nonprofit sectors — and brings particular expertise to organizations serving Latinx communities and bilingual workplaces.
Let's Talk
If your organization is ready to stop guessing about culture and start building something intentional, I'd love to hear from you.