About Dr. Yabome Gilpin Jackson
Dr. Yabome Gilpin-Jackson is an award-winning organizational development leader and scholar who centers equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in all she does. Throughout her career, which has spanned the public, private and non-profit sectors, she has helped people and organizations build capacity for transformational change to advance EDI and belonging in workplaces and society. On January 5th, 2022, Yabome was named SFU’s first Vice-President, People, Equity and Inclusion.
Yabome served as the Chief People Officer for the British Columbia Lotteries Corporation, Executive Director of Organizational Development for Fraser Health, and Regional Lead of Organizational Development for Vancouver Coastal Health, as well as a leader of several provincial leadership development and engagement healthcare committees. She is also the founder of Supporting Learning and Development Consulting Inc., which has helped mission-driven organizations, including SFU, UBC and Lululemon, advance leadership, organizational development and processes for systemic and social change.
Listen to Yabome’s inspiring talk at TEDxSFU on how to get past disconnection to social change.
She has overseen the development of comprehensive people, workforce planning and EDI strategies at BCLC and designed processes and events to advance reconciliation at Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health. In partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, she also introduced a transformational leadership program for the public service in South Africa to restore relationships between white South African settlers, Black South African Indigenous communities and African immigrants.
Read Yabome’s blog post on adapting through COVID-19 as we enter 2022.
Yabome has published numerous books and journal articles and is a well-known presenter on the topics of global EDI, leadership, and Black identity. In 2018 she received the prestigious Harry Jerome Professional Excellence Award in Canada and in 2021, BC Business named her runner-up Woman of the Year: Equity and Inclusion Champion.
She holds an MBA and undergraduate degrees from the SFU Beedie School of Business, and an MA and PhD in Human and Organizational Systems from Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at the Beedie School of Business (associate faculty as of start date).
Yabome received the Dean’s medal as a student at the Beedie School of Business: read the SFU News story.