Neelam Sahota, Chief Executive Officer, DIVERSEcity, was welcomed by host Douglas Nelson on the Discovery Pod podcast this week.
The podcast features conversations with leaders in the social impact sector to elevate the field through the sharing of lived experiences and gained wisdom.
Neelam and Douglas discussed the immigration system, the services needed the importance of strong governance in the sector, and more.
Neelam spoke on the importance of having both staff and board members represent the communities DIVERSEcity serves. “To serve newcomers, we need staff who are representative of those communities,” Neelam said. “Our governance model for our board of directors is similar. Representation is important not only just from the ethnocultural perspective but from an experience perspective, so we have individuals who have been in an immigrant journey themselves or children of [that journey] like myself.”
Chatting further about board governance for the sector, Neelam added: “It’s such an exciting territory now of asking really large questions like what is the path ahead for the next five to 10 years … As [the board and I] move along the trajectory around governance from a strategic and, I want to say, visionary standpoint, we’re asking not just what settlement is today, but what is it tomorrow and what does that mean for the organization as it pertains to nationbuilding.”
Listen to the Discovery Pod here, or on your preferred streaming platform such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher and more.