Join us in wishing Maï Yasué well as she moves on from her role as Associate Director of the Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) Office. Maï will be starting a new role as Assistant Dean of Equity and Social Accountability at the new School of Medicine at Simon Fraser University in April 2026.
Over the past three years, Maï has been an extraordinary leader and a cornerstone of REDI’s work. In her role, she provided leadership to the REDI team and collaborated with leaders across departments, centres, administrative units, as well as staff and faculty, to identify institutional and individual barriers to inclusion and to foster long-term socio-cultural change toward justice, equity, decolonization, Indigenization, and inclusion (JEDII). It is difficult to fully capture the impact she has had on the Faculty of Medicine and UBC. While many will remember her incredible work ethic, often described as “running” from one consultation, event, workshop, or capacity-building opportunity to the next, it is her relational approach that has truly defined her leadership. At the heart of everything she does is a deep commitment to building relationships and fostering a strong community of EDI leaders, changemakers, and innovative thinkers.
During her time with the Faculty of Medicine, Maï has grown REDI into a diverse and passionate team, united by a shared commitment to making healthcare education and research more equitable and inclusive. Her leadership has led to significant accomplishments, including the expansion of It Starts With Us, two major symposia, and hundreds of consultations and sessions focused on Indigenous Strategic Plan implementation, conflict engagement, and embedding JEDII across Faculty processes. Her unwavering dedication has helped advance the Faculty’s strategic goals in meaningful and lasting ways.
Maï’s recognition of the centrality of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) commitments to this work has been especially impactful. She has played a key role in strengthening collaboration between the Indigenous Engagement and REDI teams, supporting the growth of the Indigenous Speakers Series and multiple in-person gatherings that centre Indigenous voices and leadership.
Her focus on values-based, intrinsic approaches to change has allowed her to meet people where they are and create an environment where partners feel supported to take meaningful action in their own contexts.
Maï brings a rare combination of thoughtfulness, energy, and strategic insight to everything she does. She is a deeply committed and hardworking leader, known for her consistently positive and cheerful presence. She approaches every situation with enthusiasm and care, ensuring people feel heard and supported, and has a remarkable ability to navigate complex conversations in ways that are restorative and grounded in connection.
A gifted relationship builder, Maï has strengthened connections across the Faculty and cultivated a wide network of trust and collaboration for REDI. She sees the unique strengths in each individual and has a natural talent for encouraging others to grow, inspiring confidence and bringing out the best in those around her.
Her energy is contagious. She brings humour, warmth, and a sense of possibility to her work. Even when navigating challenging situations and the many complexities of this work, she does so with care and optimism, leaving people feeling supported and hopeful.
Strategic and insightful, Maï has an exceptional ability to see pathways forward that others might miss, often finding creative and thoughtful solutions to complex challenges.
Maï’s impact on REDI and the broader Faculty community has been profound, and she will be greatly missed. We are grateful for her leadership and wish her all the very best in her next chapter. In the interim, Equity Advisor Madison Tardif will take on the role of Acting Associate Director of REDI.
Join us in celebrating Maï by sharing a message of gratitude on our Padlet.
A Message from Maï Yasué
I am deeply grateful for my time at UBC, and especially for the opportunity to work alongside colleagues in the Faculty of Medicine and the REDI Office who are committed to advancing equity, inclusion, decolonization, and Indigenization in thoughtful and meaningful ways. Coming to UBC from a small university, I learned a great deal about how to scale, embed, and resource JEDII within a large and complex institution.
Even in a relatively well-resourced and supported context, this work is not easy. In large, distributed systems, building and sustaining relationships across difference takes time and intention. The diversity within institutions like UBC holds tremendous potential for innovation and synergy, but realizing that potential requires us to intentionally and structurally embed relational approaches into how we work. I have been continually inspired by the people doing this challenging work and am proud of what has been built.
Building on what I have learned at UBC, Quest University, and through community-based research, I am excited to help embed equity and social accountability from the ground up at SFU’s School of Medicine. This feels like a natural continuation of the questions that have shaped my work: how we create institutions that listen well, how we support motivation for meaningful change, and how we build systems that reflect care, relationship, and accountability to communities.
