Superpowered Storytelling: From Your Story to the Future You Want to Create

Training overview

Writer, speaker, and educator Gabby Rivera, the first Latina to write for Marvel Comics, invites participants into the world of storytelling, creativity, and courage. Drawing from her own journey from the Bronx to writing the groundbreaking America series featuring superhero America Chavez, Gabby explores how the stories we tell—and the stories we inherit—shape our identities, relationships, and sense of possibility.

Through personal storytelling, conversation, and creative exercises, participants will explore how to use their voices with greater confidence, connect across differences, and imagine new possibilities for themselves, their teams, and their communities.

Each 60-minute session is designed to be engaging, interactive, and immediately relevant to the workplace, blending Gabby's powerful stories with guided reflection and hands-on creative activities.

What Participants Gain

By the end of the series, participants will:

• Communicate their ideas with greater clarity, confidence, and authenticity
• Build stronger connections through storytelling, empathy, and active listening
• Reflect on the values and experiences that shape how they lead and show up
• Develop greater confidence in speaking up and supporting others
• Use creativity and imagination as tools for collaboration, problem-solving, and innovation
• Leave energized with a stronger sense of purpose and possibility

Session 1: Origins of truth -- Your Story has Power 

Gabby Rivera shares her journey from the Bronx to Marvel Comics and the role that truth, identity, and personal experience played in shaping her voice as a writer.

Participants explore the stories that have shaped who they are and how authenticity can build trust, strengthen relationships, and create deeper connection.

Through storytelling and reflection, participants will:

• Explore the experiences and values that have shaped their perspective
• Reflect on the power of vulnerability and authenticity
• Identify an "origin moment" that influenced who they are today
• Discover how personal storytelling can strengthen communication and connection

Session 2: Stories That Protect and Connect – What does it mean to be a hero in real life?

From Captain America standing against authoritarianism to Black Panther protecting Wakanda and America Chavez traveling across worlds with fearless conviction, superheroes have long reflected the values, struggles, and hopes of their times.

Gabby uses the world of comics to explore what courage, responsibility, and solidarity look like in real life—and how stories can inspire us to stand up for ourselves and others.

Participants reflect on moments when they witnessed courage, integrity, or allyship and consider how they can embody those qualities in their own workplaces and communities.

Through discussion and creative storytelling, participants will:

• Explore how narratives shape culture, belonging, and our understanding of leadership
• Identify everyday moments when people have spoken up or protected others
• Reflect on their own values and the qualities they want to bring to their teams
• Consider how they can use their voice to create more supportive and inclusive spaces

Key takeaway: Participants recognize that being a hero isn't about having superpowers—it's about having the courage to act on your values and show up for others.

Session 3: Build Your Own Hero: Dreaming New Worlds – What kind of future do you want to help create?

Superheroes are born from struggle, imagination, and community. In this final session, participants turn inward to identify the strengths and values they want to bring into the world—and then look outward to imagine the future they can help build together.

Using Gabby's approach to creative world-building, participants create their own hero, complete with values, strengths, and an origin story. They then collaborate to imagine communities and workplaces built on trust, cooperation, creativity, and care.

Through creative exercises and collaborative visioning, participants will:

• Identify their personal strengths and the values they want to lead with
• Use creativity to unlock new perspectives and possibilities
• Imagine what a more connected and courageous future could look like
• Explore how individual strengths become more powerful when combined with collective action
• Translate imagination into meaningful ideas for how they can contribute to change

Key takeaway: Participants leave with a renewed sense of agency, shared purpose, and creative optimism—and a clearer vision for the future they want to help create.