Karen Webb | Engineers Canada

Karen Webb has volunteered her time and expertise with many communities, often ones that hold a personal connection for her. This includes the engineering profession, the city of Scarborough, women and gender-diverse people, and the Japanese Canadian community she belongs to, among many others.

Webb began volunteering with Professional Engineers Ontario’s (PEO’s) Women in Engineering Advisory Committee in the mid-1990s. A survey of men and women members found that most women engineers had experienced workplace harassment and discrimination. Webb and her colleagues felt such behaviour should be deemed professional misconduct in the Professional Engineering Act.

She and her colleagues succeeded in making that change, and Webb is proud of that work. But she believes STEM is not yet inclusive enough: “We have a big role to play as women. We need to have a good balance of diversity since engineers impact so many aspects of society and the world around us.”

She is past board chair of Up With Women (UWW), a Canadian charity that helps low-income women and gender-diverse people exit poverty. After UWW lost $100,000 in funding during the pandemic, she helped raise over $400,000 by encouraging fellow directors to leverage their own networks. Webb’s governance experience has also supported updates to bylaws and policies.

Those skills also support the Scarborough Health Network (SHN), which merged three existing hospitals in 2016 and serves 850,000 community members. As board Vice-Chair, Webb assisted in the hiring of a CEO and other senior staff members, and also helped secure provincial funding to build a new wellness and health centre that will support diabetes care and prevention and serve dialysis patients.

Webb formerly served as Chief Warden for Camp One, The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer, where she helped recruit more diverse wardens so graduating students would see themselves reflected at their iron ring ceremonies. She is also Vice President of Heritage at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, which celebrates that community’s culture, history, and legacy.