The province recently appointed Anthonia Ogundele and Natalie Chan to fill the two empty seats on UBC’s Board of Governors.
Almost a year after former Board chair Michael Korenberg’s resignation, and eight months after Andrea Reimer quietly left the Board, Ogundele and Chan are bringing business and social justice backgrounds, as well as experience leading community initiatives, to UBC’s highest governing body.
Ogundele’s professional experience consists of resilience planning and management. She’s previously worked at VanCity Credit Union and with the Government of Ontario in emergency management.
Chan works as a family physician at Three Bridges Community Health Centre, providing primary care and addiction medicine services to Vancouver’s most at-risk inner city populations. Additionally, she teaches as a clinical faculty instructor at UBC’s family medicine department.
Both have experience working in community organizations. Ogundele, as the founder and executive director of the non-profit Ethos Lab Educational Society, led an culture-focused innovation academy for youth ages 13 to 18. Ethos Lab intends to cultivate connections between youth and innovators, allowing them to access new technologies and culture.
“Our overall purpose is to empower youth to transform the community and shape culture,” said Ogundele. “We centre all of our programming around the humanity of the Black experience, because we believe when you create a space for underrepresented communities, you're actually creating a more inclusive space.”
Chan is president and research director of Be the Change Group, a Vancouver-based public and population health consulting and creative firm created to address knowledge gaps in the public and population health sector.
“[Be the Change Group] helps organizations — whether or not they’re health authorities, nonprofit, or global organizations — to really understand their community and develop their programs to ensure that they're making an impact.” Chan said.
Ogundele and Chan have been recognized for their excellence, with Ogundele being honoured with the City of Vancouver’s Black History Month Community Leader Award and Chan being awarded Business in Vancouver’s Forty Under 40 Award.
Speaking on diversity on the board, both expressed its necessity.
“I'm a Black cisgendered woman. And there are many different identities wrapped up in that statement. But I'm also someone who's worked in the financial sector, and also a mom, who's interacting with the education system regularly as a university grad,” Ogundele said. “So I think it's really important that we all have perspective on what our positionality is, in any sort of decision or conversation that we might have.”
Chan said that a diversity of voices allows for a diversity of opinion.
“I think you can't go wrong when you have input from diverse voices that [come from] different walks of life,” Chan said.
Chan said that while she couldn’t speak for every person who identifies as East Asian, her appointment helps ensure there is a path forward for youth who do.
“To be able to see that they can have some power and ability to make decisions or participate … I think that’s invaluable.”