DIANA'S FULL PROFILE

Diana's family left Iran due to religious persecution in the late 70s, taking refuge in Germany. However, when her brother became the target of racism-based bullying, her parents decided to move the family to Canada. 

Unfortunately, in the 80s the landscape in Calgary was not as welcoming of foreigners as it is nowadays, where there is cross-pollination of foods, celebrations, and other diversities. Consequently, she experienced racism and bullying at school. This targeting and made to feel as "other" because of her appearance, her temperament, her "quirks" continued throughout her life both in her private life and in the workplace. However, a fighter since she was born 2.5 months premature, she championed people's rights to being treated with respect since she was in her teens, Diana never let anyone keep her down for long as she transformed the experiences into lessons learned, making her wiser, stronger, and more resilient.  

Naturally service-oriented, Diana has developed into an empowering leader who has built long-lasting relationships with business stakeholders that include former employers, colleagues, subordinates, and vendors. For an objective outsider perspective, see Testimonials.

Diana has always loved learning about diversity, exploring different countries, different cultures, different religions, different disabilities, different interests, different perspectives and different interests. She is a strong believer in the superpowers that can lie within teams that consists of very diverse members, as these different perspectives facilitates that teams can review a wider range of views and thereby have the opportunity to consider more options, more solutions.  

Diana completed her primary studies in French Immersion and went on to get a B.A. in Communications concentrating on Public Relations, with Latin America as her focal World Area and minoring in Spanish. After moving to Switzerland, Diana earned her M.A. in Conflict Resolution in organizations. [Thesis; "Developmental Communication Dynamics of Conflict Resolution, Leading to Consultation". Supervisor: Roshan Danesh.] To complement her experience in Human Resources, Diana completed a certificates in Human Resources (Bow Valley College) and in Leadership for HR Executives (University of Alberta). She obtained her Canadian Human Resources Professional (CPHR) designation in 2011 and the Registered Canadian Recruiter (RPR) designation in 2016.  Full of diverse interests, Diana completed a certificate and successfully passed the required exams with Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC) to practice as a Registered Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) and holds an Associate Translator status with ATIA/CTTIC.

CURRENT

• CPHR Mentor
• CPHR Committee Member/Assessor (Scholarships) 
• CPHR Competition Volunteer & Speaker (HRC West: HR Case Competition) 
• U of C Launch Your Career HR (Panel member) 
• ATIA Committee Chair (Membership Professional Development & Events)
• ATIA Committee Member (Associates)
• ATIA Committee Member (Bursary & Community Services) 
• CRIEC (Mentor)

PREVIOUS

• Calgary Police Service, Diversity Unit
• HRIA Resume Reviewer (University of Calgary)
• CHRA Committee Member (Communications, Newsletter)
• CHRA Student Engagement (Toronto Region)
• Multicultural Institute of the US Researcher (Human Trafficking) 
• ISC Mentor (New Immigrant HR Professionals)
• Calgary Missing Children's Society (Fundraising Events)
• Canadian Red Cross Trainer (Disaster Services)
• Canadian Red Cross Responder (Disaster Services)
• Canadian Red Cross HR for Volunteer Services (Onboarding, Recruiting, Scheduling for Disasters)