Meet Sarah Baldeo, a member of the 2022-2023 ELN Executive Committee. In this month’s Spotlight Sarah shares her passions, accomplishments, and the issues facing the GTHA that keep her up at night.
My name is… Sarah Baldeo.
I was born in… Toronto, Ontario at North York General Hospital.
And I currently live in… Toronto, Ontario, but have always loved urban centres, having lived in Miami and New York.
One of my favourite places in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) is…
the Devil’s Punchbowl Falls in Hamilton. It’s just such a beautiful depiction of the juxtaposition of nature and urbanization that we have in the GTHA.
One surprising thing about me/little known fact is…
I trained at the Royal Conservatory of Music to be a singer before I went off to university to study Neuroscience.
Issues in our region that keep me up at night are…
- Home affordability and the ever-widening gap for Toronto region residents– which in turn leads to classism.
- Childcare affordability for lower income families.
- Transportation infrastructure and the struggle to support citizens in navigating the city and beyond.
The organizations I work with are…
The University of California Santa Barbara, where I am part of the Advisory Board for the Women in Leadership Pace program; the York University T.A.S.T.E. Alumni Mentorship Program, helping emerging leaders chart their career paths; and Women in Identity, supporting diversity and inclusion across the identity industry.
Outside of my work/volunteering, some things I love to do are…
travelling to Europe and Asia Pacific with my 11 year old, writing, and public speaking on:
- Digital transformation – driving robotic process automation and implementation of technology solutions for digital methods of completing tasks and;
- Decentralized credentialling – helping give citizens control over who and how their data is accessed and how they prove their identity is crucial to a future-proofed economy where social equilibrium means equal access to digital social services!
The accomplishment I have been most proud of in my work and/or community is…
Receiving the University of Toronto Social Impact Award for my Rotman Executive MBA. This award is given to one recipient in the Executive MBA program who challenges the cohort in the areas of equality and diversity and raises awareness around social issues that impact us all. It felt truly humbling to know that I made an impact on my colleagues in this way.
Two major lessons I’ve learned along my leadership journey has been…
One, being perfect is impossible and two, saying no to projects and requests that do not align with my sense of self are crucial to a happy life.
If you want to get more engaged in your community, you should ….
Deliberately seek out those with different lived experiences than yourself. I grew up in Rexdale and Malton – and connecting with people from other communities in the GTHA, with a different perspective on social equity helped me to understand the dissonance that can exist in perceptions of various neighbourhoods. As we strive to understand contrasting cohorts within our community, it helps us to identify how we can collectively come together to educate and inform how we solve issues, prioritize challenges, and how our diverse ecosystem means that no community is functioning in isolation.
If I could have dinner with anyone, living or deceased, I would choose …
My grandfather, who was a much-lauded psychiatrist in Pennsylvania (PA) and worked tirelessly with the PA government to build out programs for domestic violence and substance abuse rehabilitation.