A few months ago (already!), I had the chance to speak with Raïsa Mirza.

Raïsa is a Systems Designer. Born in Bangladesh, raised in Montreal, and now living in rural Newfoundland, Raïsa promotes social change by leveraging her skills as a translator, a facilitator, a coach, and a deep listener, bringing actors together to realize the change they seek in their community.

From early childhood memories of flying to Canada for the first time to her time as a Lighthouse Keeper at Race Rocks Ecological Research, Raïsa walked me through her personal and professional evolution.

We focused on her work to improve youth graduation rates and youth success more broadly through the Communities Building Youth Futures program by the Tamarack Institute, a “network of networks” of change makers. I enjoyed hearing Raïsa speak about her experience in Newfoundland, which she describes as “the edge of the world, but in a very central way!” nourishing her lifelong interest in nature and conservation. I hope you will enjoy this conversation as much as I did. You can follow her on Twitter and Linkedin.

You can check out more of her work at WabiSabiJetty Newfoundland's Design & Innovation Collective  and her amazing travel photography at raisamirza.com .