Salma Lakhani’s path to becoming Alberta’s 19th Lieutenant Governor began not in Edmonton but in Kampala, Uganda, where she was born and raised in an Ismaili Muslim family devoted to community service. Installed as vice-regal representative on August 26, 2020, Lakhani also became a member, and the Chancellor, of the Alberta Order of Excellence upon her installation, an honour that recognizes decades of volunteer leadership grounded in her commitment to pluralism and inclusion.
Stranded, Then Starting Over
Lakhani attended the Aga Khan School in Kampala before heading to the University of Manchester in England for her post-secondary studies. In 1971, during a summer visit home, Idi Amin seized power in a violent coup, and her parents urged her to return to England immediately. The following year, Amin expelled Uganda’s entire Asian minority population, stripping Lakhani’s family of virtually everything they owned. She found herself stranded in England, without funds and without a valid passport. Two things carried her through: the support of fellow exile Zaheer Lakhani, whom she would later marry, and a decision by the British government to cover her tuition, which allowed her to complete her Honours degree in Clinical Biochemistry at the University of Leeds while Zaheer finished his medical degree there.
Building a New Chapter in Edmonton
The couple married in Leeds in 1977, the same year the University of Alberta accepted Zaheer for postgraduate study, and the Lakhanis moved to Edmonton to begin again. While Dr. Lakhani built his career as a cardiologist, Salma managed his practice and ran a business focused on early childhood education, drawing on what she has described as a natural affinity for teaching. She soon began looking for ways to give back, becoming one of the first mentors in NorQuest College’s Youth in Transition program for English as a second language students and a founding member of the college’s 1000 Women movement. More on her path to the vice-regal role is available on the Government of Alberta’s Alberta Order of Excellence page for Salma Lakhani.
A Career of Boards and Bedside Volunteering
Over the years, Lakhani lent her time to the Lois Hole Hospital for Women, Kids Kottage, Sorrentino’s Compassion House, the Alberta Cancer Board, the Zebra Foundation and the Aga Khan Foundation Canada, along with board service at the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights. During a sabbatical in the late 1990s, while her husband helped set up cardiac services at a hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, she volunteered at local schools and with women’s charity groups. NorQuest College awarded her an Honorary Diploma in Community Services Leadership in 2019, and the University of Alberta granted her an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 2021.
What does it take to turn the hardship of being stateless into a lifetime devoted to helping others find their footing?
