ActionDignity welcomes Francis Boakye as new Executive Director
October 14, 2021
The Board of Directors is pleased to welcome Francis Boakye to ActionDignity as our permanent Executive Director, effective November 8th, 2021. Francis has a wealth of experience supporting ethnocultural communities and building bridges toward the goal of a diverse, united community in Calgary.
ActionDignity works with ethnocultural communities and collaborators to achieve equitable change in our communities, institutions, and public systems. In this process, we support ethnocultural communities in amplifying their collective voice and achieving full participation in social, economic, and civic life. ActionDignity does not work in isolation, but as part of a movement of community mobilizers and organizers who share the same vision.
Francis comes to us from the Centre for Newcomers, where he has worked for 11 of the over 15 years he has been involved in the settlement/service sector. Since 2018, he has served as the Vice President for Strategy and Outreach at Centre for Newcomers. In addition to his work in the sector, Francis is also a passionate instructor and has been engaged in teaching assignments at the Social Work Faculty of the University of Calgary since 2008.
“Thank you so very much for trusting me with the role of leading ActionDignity,” says Francis. “I am confident that together, we will build on the foundation that has been laid, work towards empowering Calgary’s ethnocultural communities and help build a more equitable Calgary community.”
As part of his commitment to building a stronger and healthier community, Francis serves in many community leadership positions including as the current co-chair of the Calgary Anti-Racism ActionCommittee, and the chair of CLIP’s former Social Inclusion Working Group. He has also served on a numberof boards including Momentum, Coalition for Equal Access to Education and the City of Calgary’s SocialWell-being Committee among others.
Francis holds a PhD in Social Work from the University of Calgary and an MPhil in Information Science from the University of Bergen, Norway. Francis has represented the Centre for Newcomers on research projects with community and academic researchers on critical and pertinent social sciences aimed at advancing the building of healthier communities. Francis believes in the power of collaboration in achieving collective impact and has successfully worked with settlement and non-settlement agencies on issues that matter to our community.
“We are excited to have Francis Boakye join ActionDignity,” says Hiroko Nakao, Chair of the Board ofDirectors. “We believe that his extensive experiences in the non-profit sector, leadership skills and knowledge around empowering ethnocultural communities will be an asset to the organization and our future endeavours. Together we will build on the foundation laid through Marichu Antonio’s leadership,and the important bridging work of our Interim Leadership Team, continuing our important collaborativeaction and making Calgary a just and equitable society for all.”
Hiroko Nakao, Board Chair
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