Celia Sankar

Celia Sankar (born 1970 in Trinidad and Tobago) is a Canadian journalist, motivational speaker and personal success coach and executive director of the DiversityCanada Foundation.

The winner of several international newspaper awards, including the Commonwealth Press Union Fellowship in International Journalism, Sankar earned her Master's in journalism in London, England, where she did an internship with "The Times" and "The Sunday Times" and some radio broadcast work with the BBC. For over a decade, she wrote for the "Trinidad Express", one of the Caribbean's leading daily newspapers, rising to associate editor. In Canada, she was a writer in the Vancouver bureau for "The Globe and Mail" before moving on to become the municipal affairs reporter for "The Vancouver Sun". Later, she wrote an inspirational column for Northern Ontario's largest daily the "Sudbury Star". Sankar has also taught writing at the White Mountain Academy of Art, worked as a television journalist, and co-hosted an inspirational radio program.

During 2002 and 2003, Sankar travelled extensively across Canada to conduct inspirational lectures and promote her Canadian inspirational bestseller "Journey to Joy". The number of immigrants that Sankar met during those tours who expressed frustrations at not being able to get ahead in Canada left a powerful impression on her. It inspired her to gather like-minded individuals to establish the DiversityCanada Foundation, a not-for-profit organization for which she is the executive director. The DiversityCanada Foundation works towards creating and promoting opportunities for people regardless of background, to participate fully in the economic, social and cultural life of Canada and beyond. The organization produces resources to help members of traditionally under-represented groups, particularly youth, to develop employability skills and to link them with employers seeking to diversify their workforce.

Ms. Sankar resides in Elliot Lake, Ontario where she is active in the community and a member of the Board of Directors of the Elliot Lake Chamber of Commerce.

External links

* [http://www.celiasankar.com/ Celia Sankar's "Journey to Joy" website]