Who is Ky Sargeant (she/they)?

Hi there, it’s nice to meet you!

My name is Ky and my background is…..complicated! I’m mixed race, half Taiwanese and half White Canadian, but I was born and lived in Singapore for the first 21 years of my life. I also lived briefly in Taiwan & Japan, and have grown up around people from all different walks of life. Interestingly, though my family has been there for 40 years now, Singapore doesn’t give citizenship by birth, so I was born as (and still am) a Canadian citizen…..without ever actually living here.

I had a jarring experience the first time I moved to Canada in 2018, when the border security guard checked my passport and said “Welcome home”. The fact I was welcomed “home” so easily was especially challenging when I came to learn the history I’ve inherited as a settler here on xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) lands in so-called Vancouver, British Columbia.

I also identify as a woman (or non-binary depending on who’s asking) with transgender experience.

My unique background and experiences across different dimensions of race, class, and gender, is what led me to accidentally fall into doing DEI work. I never intended to do this work, but the more I learned about social inequities, the more I felt compelled to make progress toward a more inclusive future.

What started as founding the first student service for 2SLGBTQ+ business students and the first student team dedicated to Equity and Inclusion at the UBC Sauder School of Business, slowly morphed into a career in DEI consulting and education. I’m now graduated with honours, with a distinction as a Commerce Research Scholar, and have worked on projects for a wide range of organizations from start-ups to large corporate entities, student unions to senior university administrators, nationally recognized non-profits, and provincial-level industry associations.

At my heart, I’m an obsessive learner, a creative problem solver, and a performance artist. I thrive in messy discussions with many conflicting points of view, where I can connect to people with different perspectives and facilitate constructive conversation toward shared goals. I believe that truly impactful DEI work is half science/half art, blending a combination of evidence-based intersectional analysis, pragmatic structural solutions, and inspirational human connection.

And so…that’s what I try to do! So far, it seems to be going pretty well 💕