lerato.chondoma@ubc.ca
Lerato Chondoma hails from the Batuang Clan of ba ha Moletsane from Lesotho in Southern Africa. She is a visitor in the unceded, ancestral territory of the Musqueam people and has lived across Vancouver for the last 12 years.
As the Associate Director for the Indigenous Research Support Initiative, Lerato plays a strategic role in providing support to Indigenous communities, researchers and other partners working on Indigenous research collaborations. She works to understand how systems, policy and procedure can support Indigenous collaborations and address systemic racism on individual and system-wide levels.
Lerato has more than 15 years’ combined experience in anti-racism work, community-based research, economic and social development with Indigenous communities, legal consulting and employment equity law. She has worked across a range of specializations including law, business and economic development, natural resources, community wellbeing, and government relations.
Prior to moving to Vancouver, Lerato practiced as a candidate attorney and legal consultant in South Africa, specializing in Labour Law and Employment Equity. She has a B. Com and an LL.B from Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa and an MBA from the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. She is interested in the co-creation of community-driven solutions for anti-racism work and decolonization, and in models of community-based research that support Indigenous self-government and increased self-determination. Most recently, Lerato has been appointed by Vancouver City Council to the Racial and Ethno-Cultural Equity Advisory Committee for the term of May 18, 2021, to December 31, 2022.