Leena Sharma Seth
About
Leena is a settler who is cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied, and a child of Hindu, Punjabi, and Brahmin immigrants from India. As the Founder of Mending the Chasm, a boutique consultancy focusing on advancing equity, inclusion justice, and belonging, Leena brings a set of lived and intersectional experiences to her work as a facilitator, strategist, conflict transformation expert, inclusion advisor, and inclusive process designer.
Leena’s practice is grounded in the belief that equity work is sacred and that healing, wholeness, and embodiment are critical to creating a just and inclusive present and future.
Leena has worked with communities and clients to build inclusive, equitable, accessible, and anti-racist cultures. With over twenty years of experience in various leadership roles, both in Canada and in Asia, Leena has worked in non-profit, consulting, education, philanthropy, and supplier diversity spaces.
Leena has a Masters in Conflict Analysis & Management from Royal Roads, achieved her Canadian Certified Inclusion Professional (CCIP) designation with the Canadian Centre for Diversity & Inclusion, has received her Pride at Work certification, completed the 4 Seasons of Reconciliation program via First Nations University, and completed an Embodied Social Justice Certificate with Transformative Programs (led by Rev. Angel Kyodo) in 2022.
Leena is a trained community mediator and past Board Member for Community Conflict Resolution Services of Halton. (external link)
As a part of her personal commitment to this work, Leena has been working with her fellow South Asians to examine tensions between the ways Brown bodies, caste-privileged bodies, and northern Indians are both privileged and impacted by systems of oppression, while also perpetuating anti-Black racism. Grounded in a humble, healing-centred, and accountability-rooted practice, she has co-created a spaced called Asian Womxn Healing Collective (external link) and is also currently participating in a women’s book club focused on interrogating complicity with and dismantling caste oppression (external link) , based on Thenmozhi Soundararajan’s The Trauma of Caste (2022).
Her work in community-building has been recognized by MP Karina Gould with the Sesquicentennial Citizenship award, the Women’s Centre of Halton - 150 Years of Exemplary Women award, and the 2021 Mayor’s Community Service Award, Burlington Chamber of Commerce.
Leena has served as a co-host for a local YourTVHalton network called Diverse Perspectives, and will be launching a new show this fall called Mending Chasms.
Leena is raising two social justice warriors with her partner Sanjay and is proud to call Burlington, Ontario home.
Learn more about Leena’s work experiences and career path via her LinkedIn profile (external link) .