Shayla Bird combines love of Black history, advocacy, and empowerment to shape unique career

If you want a deep dive into the history of Black Vancouver, Shayla Bird is the guide for you.

Recently designated as an experiences host by Airbnb , Shayla specializes in tours of Hogan’s Alley, the original Black community in Vancouver’s Strathcona neighbourhood where she now lives. Much of the Hogan’s Alley neighbourhood, was destroyed by the construction of the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts in the 1970s, but the stories live on through the work of community historians such as Shayla.

But that’s just one of her many hats. Shayla, who earned a BA (with a major in geography and a minor in history) and a BEd from the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) in 2020, is also a non-enrolling teacher with the Vancouver School Board. She works with students with complex needs, supporting their individual education plans, collaborates with educators, families, and supports teams to ensure they are appropriately supported.

She taught in the Abbotsford School District for several years, where she helped launch a successful Black Connections club for high school students. Shayla organized special events for club’s students, including a visit from author Harrison Mooney (also a UFV alumnus), tours of historically Black areas of Vancouver, and collaborations with UBC’s Black Futures project.

UFV alumna Shayla Bird

Along the way, she earned her Master of Professional Education from Ontario’s Western University, graduating in 2025.

For the past few years she’s been an entrepreneur in the strategic planning and communications field, through her company PLANher Consulting. She has worked with clients such as the Women’s National Basketball Association, the Vancouver Rise FC women’s soccer club, the Vancouver Whitecaps, and Pitch Better Canada, where she was an advisor to women founders in the digital and green economy.

Shayla’s consulting also extends into education. She has worked with the Surrey School District, designed a virtual walking tour of Hogan’s Alley for the provincial Ministry of Education, and helped design a teacher resource guide for curriculum related to Hogan’s Alley and racial discrimination.

“Black history and representation is core to my work,” she notes. “It’s very important to me that people see themselves represented in their organization.”

When Shayla was growing up in Abbotsford, she didn’t have Black role models to look up to or stories to learn from. She also lacked the language and context to articulate her experience as an African American in her community.

The Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 changed that.

“Black Lives Matter gave me the push to reach out to my biological father and to visit my birthplace of Atlanta, Georgia,” she recalls. “I learned about the rich and deep history of Black communities in the southern U.S., which led me to wondering about the history of Black people in Vancouver and Canada’s west coast. I started researching the migration of Black people from the American south to California, then up to Victoria, and eventually to the Hogan’s Alley neighbourhood in Vancouver starting in the 1860s.”

Her journey also helped her realize that she had experienced microaggressions growing up as an African American youth in the Fraser Valley.

“I now have the language to articulate my experiences growing up. My goal with the students I am involved with is to give them that language, and to be a person who is there for them.”

She also tries to involve young people in advocacy work.

“My core value is to be intergenerational in my approach. I bring the youth with me.”

As for her inspiration?

“I want to work towards a just society where everyone has access to what they need to flourish.”

And her dream?

“I’d love to open up my own school one day.”

She is also open to running for public office in the future.

Shayla credits her undergraduate experience at UFV with helping to prepare her for her career and advocacy work.

“I loved my undergrad degree experience at UFV,” she says. “The professors were very supportive. The class sizes were small and you could build relationships with the instructors that were like a partnership. History professor Ian Rocksborough-Smith played a huge role in my education. He brought in great guest lecturers and gave me a real understanding of what a public historian is.”

She also enjoyed geoscience professor Olav Lian’s courses.

“Olav provided firm, fair, and consistent place-based learning.”

And she valued the opportunity to learn about Indigenous ways of knowing.

“I appreciated the different spaces UFV was able to provide for me to integrate with Indigenous practices and learn about reconciliation. I was able to engage in a holistic way.”

She advises the youth of today to see the value in their hometown universities.

“UFV provided an incredible experience for me.”

Shayla is offering tours of Hogan’s Alley in Vancouver, including one on February 28 to mark Black History Month. To find out more, contact her at shayla@planher.ca or visit her Instagram page @planher_inc.