Ratna omidvar biography for kids

Canadian politician and academic

Ratna OmidvarCM OOnt (born November 5, 1949) is a Canadian politician and academic, who was named to the Senate of Canada to represent Ontario on March 18, 2016.^[1] She retired from the Senate on November 5, 2024 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.

Early life and academic career

Originally from Amritsar, India,^[2] she was educated at the University of Delhi.^[3] Although she was born in Amritsar, the Sikh holy city, she is not a Sikh.^[4] She met her Iranian husband while studying in Germany and went to live with him in Iran in 1975. In 1981 they fled the Iranian Revolution and immigrated to Canada.^[5][6][7]

She became executive director of the Maytree Foundation, a charitable organization to combat poverty in Canada, before departing in 2014 to found the Global Diversity Exchange at the Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metrop