SheLeads: Jabeen Boga

Jabeen Boga Jamal’s inspiration to volunteer comes from her parents and grandparents, who ingrained in her the need to give back. They taught her that giving is about making a difference, and their charitable actions motivated her to follow in their footsteps.

Jabeen currently serves as the Ismaili CIVIC Lead for the Community Relations Portfolio at the Ismaili Council for British Columbia. Over the past 3 years, Jabeen has led more than forty events cumulatively adding up to 45,000 volunteer hours by 3,000 volunteers. She has supported numerous initiatives, by volunteering herself, and by leading a team of donors and volunteers for initiatives at the Canada Blood Drive, food banks, homeless shelters, YWCA, Habitat-for-Humanity, amongst many others.

Her most recent involvement was the United We Sew campaign, through Ismaili CIVIC. It consisted of leading a large volunteer team - those who sewed masks (which included many of the elders), donors who provided raw materials, those who performed drop-offs of completed masks, and many more. Through this initiative, 4,000 masks were donated across BC to not-for-profit organizations. These actions helped to ensure that essential workers were kept safe.

Professionally, Jabeen is a Regional Human Resources business partner for a global employer, responsible for offices across Western Canada. Additionally, she teaches part-time at local colleges as a business instructor, and has been recognized as a featured faculty member.

Jabeen has received various accolades in the business industry. She was named 2015’s Rising Star in Canada, and she was a recipient of Canada’s HR Excellence Awards in 2017 for her significant contributions both professionally as well as in a voluntary capacity. In 2020, Jabeen received a Featured Girl Warrior award (Woman-of-Distinction) to recognize her commitment to empowering women – she had mentored of six proteges from Young Women in Business (YWiB) and SFU’s Beedie Business School. This involved helping them to develop their career goals followed by providing assistance towards reaching them.

Jabeen’s contributions within her field include her involvement on CPHR BC & Yukon’s Advisory Council as a Post-Secondary and Network Liaison. She was instrumental in increasing student membership by over 20% within three years. With the rapid onset of COVID-19, she quickly recognized the financial and emotional hardship of those facing job losses. She subsequently partnered with CPHR BC & Yukon to lead complimentary support sessions on coping throughout the job-hunting process, along with tips on identifying and working towards future career opportunities.

Jabeen hopes to continue to volunteer at not-for-profit organizations, both locally and internationally. She has worked towards reinforcing education for young women in India, and hopes to build on this post-pandemic. Stated best by her employer: “Jabeen constantly demonstrates that her good work knows no boundaries.”