Pride Toronto announces new executive director
Olivia Nuamah brings almost 25 years of experience to role
The new executive director of Pride Toronto is taking a positive view of the controversy following last year’s parade.
“We need to see tension as an opportunity,” said Olivia Nuamah, who was named to the position Friday.
“My hope is the difference between last year and this year is there will be greater levels of engagement with our membership and community in order to ensure that the festival reflects everybody’s experiences,” she said in a news release.
Nuamah replaces Mathieu Chantelois, who resigned last August.
Chantelois signed an agreement with Black Lives Matter Toronto when the group shut down the parade and presented the organization with a list of demands, including the removal of police floats in the Pride marches and parades.
At the Toronto Pride annual general meeting last month, members of the community voted to uphold those demands. The Toronto police later announced they would not be taking part.
Nuamah is described as a community builder, mother, artist and DJ, who will bring almost 25 years of experience working in both the government and non-profit sectors to this position.
“Joining Pride presents an incredible opportunity to step into a role that affirms who I am both as a leader and my personal desire to create cultural experiences that reflect the diversity of identities and experiences in our community,” Nuamah said.
In 2010, Nuamah was appointed executive director of the Atkinson Foundation, established by former Toronto Star publisher Joseph E. Atkinson to promote social and economic justice. Described as an accomplished executive leader, policy expert and social-justice advocate, Nuamah also previously worked on former British prime minister Tony Blair’s pledge to end poverty in the United Kingdom by 2020.
Born and raised in Toronto, she earned an undergraduate degree in international development and social anthropology from the Universi- ty of Toronto. She earned a Masters in social anthropology of children and childhood development from Brunel University.
Most recently, Nuamah was the executive director of Innercity Family Health, an organization that delivers health care to homeless communities in Toronto’s downtown east-end.
She has also been a volunteer at Toronto Pride for the past few years.
“We are all Pride’s future,” she said.