Associate Director, Partnership Development & Stewardship, Diversity Institute
Samar Mudawi is a Black Muslim woman who immigrated to Canada from Sudan in 2021. Her lived experience has shaped how she sees the world and deepened her commitment to equity, inclusion, and social justice. As Associate Director of Partnership Development & Stewardship at the Diversity Institute, she brings together research, partnerships, and community engagement to advance systems change, and leads the Canadian Council of Muslim Women’s work on an intersectional feminist AI strategy focused on equity and inclusion.
For more than a decade, Samar has worked in Canada and internationally to understand and address the barriers facing women and equity-deserving communities. Internationally, she supported the Gender Awareness and Transformation through Education (GATE) project in Tanzania, evaluated Concern Worldwide’s graduation project in Malawi, led qualitative research in Sudan on the gendered livelihood impacts of loss of nationality for South Sudanese refugees, and studied barriers to healthcare access for women and girls in rural Sudan. Her published research includes “The (Gendered) Livelihood Impacts of Loss of Nationality on South Sudanese Refugees in Sudan” and “Exploring Accounts of Gender Stereotyping in a Teacher-Training College,” grounded throughout in feminist, intersectional, and participatory approaches that center the lived realities of the women she works with.
In Canada, Samar has led community engagement informing the City of Mississauga’s EDI strategy, the City of Vaughan’s Anti-Black Racism Action Plan, culturally appropriate supports for immigrant students and families with the Winnipeg School Division, and recommendations for York Regional Police — consistently ensuring that communities most affected by inequity help shape the systems and policies that govern their lives. She has presented nationally at the Metropolis conference on credential recognition for internationally educated healthcare professionals, and leads work on AI literacy for newcomer entrepreneurs and the impact of automation on immigrant women’s economic opportunities. Deeply connected to the Sudanese community in Canada, she provides informal support to women and families, mentors Black entrepreneurs on accessing funding, and has served on the board of the Department of Imaginary Affairs. She currently leads anti-Islamophobia training work centering the experiences of Muslim women and racialized and queer Muslim communities, and has consulted with organizations including the YMCA — reviewing evaluation tools for gendered and plain language — while conducting engagement in both English and Arabic across municipalities, policing, school boards, and the private sector.
