In response to the UTS Equity Survey results and feedback from our community, UTS created a new Equity and Inclusion Program Director position to support our efforts to combat racism and discrimination at UTS and to improve the quality of our Anti-Racism, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion initiatives.
This position falls under the Instructional Leadership Facilitator umbrella and we are pleased to announce that Nasreen (Nas) Khan took on this role. Nas has been a Visual Arts Teacher at UTS since September 2019. She identifies as a cisgendered, mixed-race woman of colour, and a member of the 2SLGBTQQI. She holds a B.Ed and a B.FA, Cultural Critical and Historical Studies (Honours), both from York University. She is currently pursuing a Masters of Information degree at the University of Toronto. Her passion for equity in education was ignited while pursuing her B.Ed at York University, where she was chosen as one of 12, from the cohort of 150 concurrent B. Ed. students, to participate in a pilot certificate program co-sponsored by the Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program through the Japanese Consulate and York on inter-cultural communication. The Program afforded her the opportunity to consider how culture defines communication and to recognize that communication is highly affected by cognitive biases, which allowed her to develop a personal framework to confront her own biases.
Nas began training teachers in equity over 18 years ago. As the Equity Representative for Heydon Park Secondary School, she received training in equity facilitation at the board level and delivered equity workshops teaching staff. More recently, in her role as Arts Education Officer at the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), she again provided equity training. As the Arts Education Officer, one of her responsibilities was to co-design a training program for artists working in Ontario schools with their partner, RCM—Learning through the Arts. She also led the OAC’s Equity Committee and broader staff to develop an equity vision, principles and implementation plan.
In this role, Nas is also co-chairing the Equity Committee with our Chief People Officer, Lily McGregor. Her expertise in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is bringing invaluable insight into ways that we can improve our policies, procedures, academic program, and day-to-day practices.