As a Peter Allard School of Law alumni with a doctoral degree from UBC and as a dedicated law, political science, and public policy adjunct professor, Shiva Olyaei is honoured to serve her community through her unwavering devotion to social justice praxis. Shiva received training in diverse legal fields, including constitutional law, Canadian charter of rights and freedom, human rights, international law, feminist legal studies and immigration and refugees public policy in Canada.

This academic background prompted her to bridge the gap between academia and grassroots civil and political activism by further engaging with immigrant communities through the Farsi dar BC grassroots campaign as an incoming vice president. She also delivered educational workshops and facilitated support groups to raise awareness among women and youth and positively contribute to their political literacy. Shiva volunteered with ISS and MOSAIC, which inspired her to become a certified life and leadership coach and an accredited judicial translator and interpreter.

Shiva's critical legal lens and her extensive exposure to diversity, along with her own lived experience, allowed her to appreciate the value of equitable and just treatment without bias or discrimination. Shiva takes pride in her recent journey to actively educate herself and her community about Indigenous rights and history and the decolonization process in Canada. Such awareness inspired Shiva to register for ombudsperson training, JEDDI workshops, gender literacy, behavioural management and fairness seminars, as well as indigenous laws and public policy online courses in various online training institutions.