Sophia Woo 胡慧儀

Sophia Woo (胡慧儀) is a graduate of Simon Fraser University and has a Master Degree in Social Work from Hong Kong University and is a Mental Health Clinician in Vancouver. She served as School Trustee on Vancouver Board of Education 2011–2014. She is a recipient of the Outstanding Chinese Women Award (2007) and is a Paul Harris Fellow. Sophia served on boards of a number of community organizations including Riverview Hospital, community policing centres and the Rotary Club. She publishes in professional journals and medical education booklets. She speaks at local, national and international conferences, coordinates community workshops and facilitates family support groups.

Sophia has experience balancing priorities in public organizations with best financial management practices. She has served on multiple stakeholder groups including advisory committees at the City of Vancouver and as representative and decision maker in financial, legal and human resource matters at the Vancouver School Board. In 2006–2007, she and the chair of the Vancouver School Board, Ken Denike, successfully negotiated with the federal government for funding support for settlement workers in school districts to serve the new surge of immigrants whose needs had been overlooked for years.

Sophia has extensive experience advocating for public safety and school safety. Drawing on her clinical health background, she placed a motion to advocate for suicide barriers on bridges to deter people from attempting suicide. She also identified a serious safety concern in the differences between colour-coded emergency systems used by schools and those used by security, health and first-responder agencies — and placed a motion at the Vancouver School Board, then worked through the BC School Trustee Association and the BC Public School Employers' Association to convene emergency sessions between school board senior administrators, police, first responders and health authorities to align the codes.

As vice-chair of the Finance and Legal Committee of the Vancouver School Board, she organized a sub-committee to evaluate the opportunity of combining housing on school property when upgrades or new construction occurred. The evaluation ran over her three-year term of office, identified building trends in housing, and analyzed impacts across financial, operational, human-resource and socioeconomic dimensions.

Sophia Woo has 30 years of experience in public services, and she wants to bring common sense, public safety and fiscal responsibility back to our municipal government. Sophia hopes to use her experience from her public life, working life and volunteering to represent Richmond residents. It's a natural fit between her profession and public office. She is passionately committed to public services and has been in the helping profession all her career. Through her experiences, she recognizes the diversity of people, the importance of common sense in dealing with issues, and the importance of collaboration and co-operation between various levels of government.

Preview — biography subject to final ARCA approval.