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Reem Ali is the first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Officer for the City of Peterborough, Ontario, a student of the N4 and Saint-Paul University Online Program, and a member of N4. Reem brings to her role many years of experience as a community builder, both through academic and professional pursuits, as well as through her commitment to volunteerism.
Reem’s path to where she is today was not a direct one – she completed a Master of Science in Biochemistry and went on to pursue a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences. Midway through her Ph.D., she took time off to explore working with children in a non-profit in Egypt, as working in the non-profit sector abroad had always appealed to her. Reem’s experience in the non-profit sector marked a profound turning point for her, and after five years in Egypt, she came back to Canada to pursue a Master of Public Administration.
Reem returned to her hometown of Peterborough and began a position as a Community Development Worker at the New Canadians Centre (NCC), where she quickly applied her community development background and Arabic language skills to supporting the influx of newly arrived Syrian refugees. In this role, she founded and coordinated working groups to support newcomer integration in the community. Reem also gained a passion for working on women’s economic empowerment projects, seeking out ways to build the skills and experience of her newcomer clients, despite the varying levels of English literacy and educational background that they may have, and to help them build community to combat social isolation. She started several social enterprises; Newcomer Kitchen Peterborough with the support of The Nourish Project, which taught newcomer women the skills needed to work in a commercial kitchen and start a catering business. Reem also founded The Sewing Collective, and more recently the Newcomer Sewing Crew, which focus on teaching newcomer women sewing and business skills while offering them a community setting where they can grow and nurture their feelings of belonging.
Reem’s participation in the N4 and Saint-Paul University Online Program for newcomer-serving professionals coincided with pivotal career transitions, from her role as the Workplace Integration Liaison at the NCC to the Interim Executive Director of the Kawartha Sexual Assault Centre (KSAC), to her current role as the City of Peterborough’s DEI Officer. Reem credits the many structured opportunities for self-reflection incorporated into the program’s curriculum as supporting her through these transitions. She also emphasizes the importance of self-reflection in the re-emergence of her authentic Self and in learning to appreciate and value the work that she does, as well as what she gives and gets out of it.
Reem embraced the opportunity to fully immerse herself in the diverse courses offered as part of the program, finding that the Social Justice course and Multiculturalism course helped her make sense of her clients’ as well as her own experiences with racism and discrimination. Similarly, the courses Helping Relationships and Ethical Considerations and Gender Relations and Conflict supported her transition into her KSAC role, and the courses Ethics and Public Service, Local and Community Response to Conflict, and Ethics and Disability allowed Reem to expand her understanding of DEI and the ways in which it can be actioned in her new role at the City of Peterborough.
Reem continues to draw upon her experience in the program and share her learnings with others, “I sometimes look up papers that I wrote or assignments I submitted, because I took the time to really add a reflective piece into those assignments that spoke to my work and personal experiences, so I like to go back to draw on that work to integrate aspects of it into presentations or meetings.” Reem also frequently revisits course resources, finding that they complement her work by opening the door to related resources and allowing her to build her professional knowledge base.
As Peterborough continues to grow, so too do the number of newcomers who call the city home. “I can tell you that 27 years ago I was the first student who looked like me in my high school...now, that diversity can be seen everywhere,” says Reem. While Peterborough still has work to do to combat racism and discrimination, Reem sees herself as part of that effort, “I finally feel like I have a role to play in what I've always hated about being here; to help others feel more welcomed and to really make it a place where folks like myself can feel like they belong, because for me, this is home.”
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