Born Cecilia Paz Goycoolea Grunwald, in Vicuña Mackenna, Santiago, Chile to an upper-middle-class family, of European descent, her father came from a Roman Catholic family originally from EuskadiBasque Country, Spain, and her mother came from a JewishEastern European family. She had two sisters, Loreto and Sofia, and a brother Valerio.
Education
Paz attended a boarding school run by nuns. She felt such an affinity with the nuns' lifestyle-the way that their daily living was an act of worship of God-that upon high-school graduation she joined their order the Teresian Carmelite Missionaries in the World and was sent to work at the convent "Santa Teresa delle Suore Carmelitane Missionarie Teresiane" in Nogoyá, Argentina; after a couple of years at the convent and just before taking her nuns votes, she decided to dedicate her life to education and terminated her service at the monastery and became an elementary school teacher at "Immaculata of Buenos Aires" a private Roman Catholic girls school in Argentina. While teaching elementary school, with the help of the church, Paz became the holder of an international scholarship, and moved to the United States to produce a television program for the young people of Latin America that focused on current affairs promoting to stay in school. Her project was successful in the US, and she had the opportunity to obtain a university scholarship at Florida State University in Tallahassee, earned her doctorate in adult learning and international development and met her second husband, Dr. Knute Buttedahl. In 1975 they moved to Toronto, Ontario with Paz's children, Maria Jose and Juan Ignacio, from her first marriage to Cesar Ascui of Santiago, Chile.
Professional evolution
In Toronto, Ontario, she and Knute worked together at the Canadian Association for Adult Education until moving to Vancouver in 1978. She would eventually return to Ontario in the mid-1980s becoming project manager and program director for the IDRC International Development Research Centre while Knute worked with CIDA the Canadian International Development Agency conducting and implementing projects world-wide on international development and global education, mainly in Latin America and Asia. They would return to Vancouver in the late 1990s.
Entrepreneurial Spirit & Global Development
In 1978, Paz moved with her family to Vancouver, BC, Canada taking an academic position at the Faculty of Education, at UBC. In 1980, while working in academia Paz co-founded with Dr. Knute Buttedahl, a non-government-organisation to provide services in Global Education to developing countries, they launched BRDA Buttedahl R & D Associates, an R&D firm dedicated to the publishing of adult education material and international development reports centered in sustainable education, integrating academics and field research working across borders, in multi-cultural and multi-lingual settings, cutting across multiple time zones, ensuring smooth transfer of new know-how and technology to other groups or departments involved in innovation and Global R&D management. BRDA was based in Vancouver BC, providing consultancy services in research, editing, and publishing to projects funded by international agencies and organizations, among their clients included the Canadian International Development Agency, The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Organization of American States.
In 1998, Dr.Paz Buttedahl launched VIA Vancouver Institute for the Americas, a Global Education arm at UBC operating in partnership with the Vancouver Institute Lectures program, to support research on Human Resources Development and Training Programs for worldwide implementations. VIA Vancouver Institute for the Americas assisted programs under the umbrella of UNESCO and CIDA, also participated in large multinational Educational Reform implementations, such as initiatives with Dr. Michelle Bachelet, then Chilean Ministry of Education, in the development of an e-learning platform and construction of educational centers under a program denominated "Enlaces". After the death of her loving husband Dr. Knute Buttedahl, she dedicated her life to the evolution of VIA's own creative projects centered in Women in development, and took an academic position in Victoria BC at Royal Roads University, where she went on to launch a Master's program centered in Peace-building and Governance. While working in Victoria she met and married her last husband John K. Park.
Legacy
Beside participating in public presentations and conferences world-wide, her extensive research and writing work, Paz dedicated her life to her interns and young consultants working on international development projects world-wide. The creation of the "Paz Buttedahl Career Achievement Award in Academia" is a testimony to her legacy.
