Sanchia Alasia, the first Caribbean mayor of this London borough

Sanchia Alasia was announced as the new mayor of Barking and Dagenham, a London borough.

She becomes the first woman from the Caribbean to hold such a position. She takes over from Mayor Abdul Aziz.

She has promised to work on diversity and inclusivity, especially when it comes to people with disabilities.

“I’d like to have a theme of inclusivity throughout the year and to ensure those with invisible disabilities are included in the work I do. I’ve decided to have two mayoral advisors around disability so that I can make sure they’re integrated into the work I do,” she said in her speech.

Here are a few things to know about her:

Born in Jamaica

She was born in Jamaica in 1980 but came to London when she was just three months old.  She grew up in Newham, east London.

She’s an equality and diversity expert

With a BSc in politics and sociology and an MSc in politics, policy and government, Alasia has taken part in quite a number of equality and inclusivity roles over the years including serving as the diversity officer at Queen Mary University, Equality and Diversity lead within the NHS as well as the equality and diversity manager at Brunel University.

She was diagnosed with endometriosis

Adelaide was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2010, something that has made her include Endometriosis UK as one of the charities she will be working with as mayor.

“There are many other women who suffer from this, and this charity gives us vital support,” she said.

Award winner

She has to her name, a number of awards including a 2012 community leadership award for her work at Barking; a  local government personality of the year at the Dods women in public life awards and a Grassroots Diplomats award for her work in equality and diversity.