In 2021 Sanaa Shaikh experienced burnout as a South Asian woman working in an overwhelmingly white and male profession, facing discrimination and microaggressions while designing housing for underserved communities whose perspectives she felt were routinely dismissed. A friend suggested public-sector work and introduced Public Practice, a social enterprise that recruits established design and planning professionals into local government. After completing Public Practice’s program, Shaikh remained in the public sector as placemaking lead for the London Borough of Bexley, shaping urban design and planning guidance, reanimating disinvested public realm, supporting local businesses, and creating free, accessible spaces for overlooked groups including young people and the elderly.
In 2021, Sanaa Shaikh was burned out. As a South Asian woman working in an overwhelmingly white and male profession, she had spent years experiencing her fair share of discrimination and microaggressions-while at the same time being tasked with designing housing developments for underserved communities where she routinely felt like her ideas and perspective were dismissed. She was ready to move on.
After completing Public Practice's program last year, Shaikh has remained in the public sector, working as placemaking lead for the London Borough of Bexley. In the role, she shapes urban design and develops planning guidance for the area, initiating efforts to reanimate its disinvested public realm to support local businesses and to ensure overlooked groups including young people and the elderly have free and accessible spaces to spend time.
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