Shazia Khan

Shazia joined the MHA board in 2022. Her professional background and expertise relate to the fields of Human Resources, Equality Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) and Community Cohesion. Over the past 25 years, Shazia has worked with the public sector, the private sector and the voluntary & community sectors in both employment and consultancy capacities and has substantial experience of working at senior and strategic levels. Her academic and professional qualifications include a law degree and a CIPD Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development.

Shazia commenced her career in the mid-1990s at Kirklees Council working in a generalist HR role. Having developed a strong interest in Equality Diversity & Inclusion, she went on to hold related job roles within the Commission for Racial Equality (a regulatory body, now part of the EHRC), followed by roles within Leeds City Council and then Calderdale Council, where she held the corporate strategic lead for equality, diversity, inclusion and community cohesion.

During her time in local government, Shazia enjoyed considerable success and notoriety for her innovative work and contribution to best practice in the ED&I field, including recognition from the equality regulator, and local government sector bodies such as Dialog (the equality arm of the Employers Organisation for Local Government) and the IDeA (Improvement & Development Agency for Local Government). During this time she also co-authored national guidance for the sector on implementing new equality legislation. Keen to build on this experience and use her expertise more widely across different sectors and organisations, Shazia subsequently moved into consultancy work.