Dr Sasha Shim-Hue – A people-centred leader

DRIVEN by passion and purpose, deputy manager at the Ebony Park HEART Academy Dr Sasha Shim-Hue has steadily climbed the ladder of success within the training institution through her unwavering commitment to both the institution and its students.

Dr Shim-Hue started working with the vocational institution after completing her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Northern Caribbean University in 2004.

“My mother was already working there and I think I kinda copied her because she was making excellent strides at HEART, so I started as a guidance counsellor at the Jamaican-German Automotive School in Kingston. I stayed there for six years and then I ventured back to Clarendon where I worked at the HEART/Trust May Pen office and I stayed there for a little bit, then left HEART for a short while,” she told All Woman.

However, she said she soon realised that she missed the institution and so came back as an admissions and assessment monitoring officer and was later transferred to the organisation’s Ebony Park location in Clarendon.

Having completed her master’s degree in education, she was later afforded the opportunity to act as deputy manager and did so well that she was permanently appointed to the position.

“I can tell you it wasn’t a seamless transition, but really what got me to where I am now is my passion for people. No matter what happened, I always saw the bright side and continued to see the bright side of every situation,” she explained.

“When I did my doctorate in 2014 in counselling, many people asked why counselling, but at the centre of every great leader and every great human resources practitioner there has to be someone who is able to relate with other people; someone who knows the tenets of personality and why it is that people do what they do and how they do it. It allows you to bridge the gap and allows you to see the bright side rather than the rough side of someone,” she said.

This ability to see the best in people helped Dr Shim-Hue to become so integrated within the institution and its mandate that she was named the HEART/Trust NTA brand ambassador for 2015.

She was also the recipient for the organisation’s 2014/2015 Values and Icon Award for being the person who best lived and spread the six core values of the institution.

These accomplishments she credits to her mother, Jeanette Shim-Hue, who she said taught her and her younger brother the importance of education and valuing themselves.

“I grew up in a single-parent home. My mother never forgot where she, too, was coming from — quite humble beginnings — but every single day we felt loved. She always saw the opportunity to say, ‘Sasha, I love you ennuh, yuh suh pretty’. So from day one I never needed a man to tell me I was pretty because my mother made sure every day in every way, to tell me.”

In addition to her mother’s influence, Dr Shim-Hue also credits God with helping her to achieve so much thus far, but maintained that hard work was also required in order to reap success.

“Some of the times I leave here in the wee hours of the morning just to get it done, but when you see the benefits of what you do, it is worth it. I have a 10-year-old son who motivates and guides me. He is just looking for me to be successful, so I have to make sure I blaze that path so that he sees it’s not about means and opportunities, but it is about who you are and what you want to do,” she stated.

An avid volunteer, Dr Shim-Hue heads the local beach clean-up committee and has pioneered volunteerism initiatives at the training centre.

“I love giving back,” she stated. “There are several children’s homes that I donate to and I even have students whose accommodation I’m paying for. I look about everything for school. I’m also part of a foundation where I sponsor a young man going to high school and I also offer free counselling services to anyone who needs it,” she said.

For the future, Dr Shim-Hue said she ideally sees herself owning a business and becoming a life coach.

“I’d love to dedicate my time to having people seeing the best in themselves. I’d also like to definitely climb the corporate ladder — wherever it is that the Lord sees it fit to take me, I’m willing to go.”