Our Team
Our team brings together passionate facilitators, educators, advocates, and community leaders committed to advancing equity and challenging racism in all its forms. Through education, dialogue, and collective action, we work to create safer, more inclusive communities where everyone is valued, heard, and empowered.
Sobia Shaikh
Sobia Shaheen Shaikh is a faculty member at the School of Social Work at Memorial University in St. John’s. She is a social work educator, antiracist-feminist activist, researcher, mother and writer. As a community-engaged researcher, Sobia’s work focuses on supporting antiracist and social justice praxes. Sobia continues to learn from activists and artists of diverse backgrounds. As an activist, she sits on several boards and committees. Most notably, she co-chairs the Anti-Racism Coalition of NL (ARC-NL) and the Addressing Islamophobia in NL project, where she is often sought for her expertise on anti-racism and equity work in the province and nationally. As well, Sobia is a creative writer, and a founding member of The Quilted Collective of Racialized NL Writers and of the BIPOC Creators Collective.
Co-Chair
Jenne Nolan
Jenne Nolan (she/her/elle) is a white settler, living in Ktaqmkuk with her partner and a cat with very sharp claws. She grew up in Tiohtià:ke. She’s just a human who is always looking for ways to work with others to end racism. ARC-NL was founded to address the mess that racial capitalism has made of our communities and to give us an apparatus that will help us push for social justice. What does this work look like? It starts with - Land Back. It starts with - Full Immigration Status for All. It starts with - Prison Abolition. It starts with - Decriminalizing Sex Work. It starts with - Addressing Transphobia and Islamophobia. It starts with – Transformative Justice. Jenne is a slow reader but there are three books that she can’t stop thinking about; Policing Black Lives – by Robyn Maynard, Border & Rule – by Harsha Walia, and We Do This ‘Till We Free Us – by Mariame Kaba. Don’t bring any of these books up around her or you will be stuck talking for hours.
Co-Chair
Dome Lombeida
Rachel Gilbert was born in Texas with family roots in Newfoundland, moving to the island in 2014 to study for BFA in Visual arts from Grenfell Campus. Working as an interdisciplinary artist, Gilbert specializes in painting and printmaking with subjects ranging from animals and nature to still-life and portraiture. She has been working with the arts community since 2016, starting with the Corner Brook Rotary Arts Centre’s Visual Arts Committee, a Collections Internship at The Rooms, to her work as the Communication & Design Assistant at St. Michael’s Printshop. Rachel recently worked as the Outreach Coordinator at Eastern Edge. She is also one of the lead organizers of the BIPOC Creators Collective of NL. Rachel currently lives and works out of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Program Manager 
Rachel Gilbert
Dome (they/them) is a trans non-binary migrant from Guayaquil, Ecuador. Dome works with ARC as a program manager for the Anti-Racism Literacy project.
Program Consultant
Oluwatoyin Awosanya
Finance and Administrative CoordinatorOluwatoyin Awosanya is an advocate, artist, and aspiring forensic accountant based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. She currently serves as Finance and Administrative Coordinator with the Anti-Racism Coalition of Newfoundland and Labrador and sits on the Advisory Board of Canada Confesses Advocacy Institute.
Across her work in community organizing, administration, and the arts, Oluwatoyin is committed to building a more equitable and just society. She is passionate about increasing access to resources, supporting community-led initiatives, and using education, creativity, and collaboration to create meaningful change.