I am Kenia Sousa, mom to two beautiful and creative kids and wife to an amazing man. I’m a Process Engineer at TD Bank in Canada. I’m a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt applying advanced statistical analysis of process improvement. I love working with a group of people who are always looking to improve customer and colleague experience using a continuous improvement philopsophy.

Previously, I was a business analyst in one of the biggest education programmes of the European Commission, Erasmus+ in Belgium. I elicited requirements leading workshops, modeled business processes using BPMN, specified system impact, created prototypes, created user manuals, monitored processes and identified and applied process improvements.

I have a PhD in Economics and Management Sciences, achieved with a strong academic participation with several publications and a thesis on usability for business. Since my Masters, I had been focused in usability because of its direct impact on people. What impressed me the most was how small changes in user interfaces make a huge difference in how people perform their tasks. When I started to bring this idea to companies, I got immediately drawn to the issues they had in their processes and saw how much usability could improve these processes. So, I wrote my PhD thesis on bridging the gap between usability and business processes.

In 2011, I became a mother and it made me a different person. I discovered a strength and desire to succeed more powerful than ever. Before my kids, success was about having fun, after that, it was a commitment. I became more eager to learn new things and be a better version of myself each day.

The greatest events in my life have made me value:

  • Balance: Every Wednesday, I go to the local market looking for organic fruits, vegetables and bread. I have started a new process of conscious choices. I donate or sell what’s no longer used, give the proper destiny for what is broken, and recycle as much as possible. Even though every action seems to have a minor impact, I’m proud of how far they have taken me to lead a healthier and more sustainable life.

  • Equality: I have a boy and a girl and you will often see me teaching them to dance, cook, play with any kind of toy, be strong and kind, both of them, irrespective of their gender. Of course, he is an athletic boy and she is a sweet girl. But she is also active and decisive, and he is also caring and attentive. I value each of their unique personality traits and I don’t label them to be anything different than what they want to be.

  • Patience: For a long time, I have been anxious. On one end, it has helped me to be that focused person who achieves her goals. On the other hand, Yoga helped me tame whatever was not valuable from that anxiety. I have gone through pregnancies, natural births, demanding projects, and other cases of “make a dream come true” or more mundane activities of toddler education that constantly put me to test. Patience is a daily, useful exercise!

  • Simplicity: My concept of simplicity is to value wellbeing and life experiences more than owning things. Freedom from standards make it easier to follow my unique path and make changes more easily. The more I study, the more I see that actions have to be direct and simple to be efficient.

I have a passion for cooking. I’m constantly looking for and trying new recipes. Cooking has greatly influenced me, but it goes beyond health, it makes me feel life as an act of love. The strongest memories I have from my beloved late grandma are the smell and taste of her unique food. If I could use my work vocabulary: Food is a deliverable with immediate user feedback and it better be good!

In 2016, I have taken the challenge to start Aikido. It has definitely changed who I am. It has taught me not to be afraid of making mistakes and that has given me the chance to try until I get it done. Now, I am more confident in my movements and that resonates in every single aspect of my life, making me a better person, more balanced and healthier.

In 2018, I started running and today I call myself a runner. I have run many half marathons and completed my first full 42k marathon in October 2023 running the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C. I apply the Kaizen philosophy to implement daily small improvements in what I do.