Natasha Oliveira Zepeda ( She/Her )
Informal Conflict Management Officer, Office of the Ombud, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
- BA Anthropology, 2015
My path into anthropology began almost by accident, but it became the first place where it aligned intuitively with my curiosity and how I understand the world. In my very first intro class, I realized that Anthropology was not only a window into human complexity, but it was also a discipline grounded in care, curiosity, and the possibility of contributing something meaningful to others. At Carleton, I found a sense of belonging I had never really experienced academically. My professors encouraged reflection, honesty, and the kind of learning that reshapes how you see both yourself and the world.
Anthropology taught me to hold systems and individuals in the same frame: a living constellation where patterns, histories, and intentions illuminate one another. It gave me the ability to sit with ambiguity, trace root causes, and recognize connection as the first form of understanding. These skills have grounded every role I’ve held since (HR, IT, Change Management, Youth Work, Case Management, Data Analysis, Learning and Workshop Facilitation, and now ICMS) where listening deeply, interpreting complexity, and bridging worlds were, and are, essential. More than anything, Anthropology taught me to meet contradiction with compassion and to navigate institutions the way one moves through a dream: attentive, adaptable, and curious. It trained me to resist reductionism in all its forms and to add colour back where systems flatten people and to turn insight into praxis through accountability, repair, and design choices that keep services humane.
What I am most grateful for is how the program shaped me as a person. Anthropology gave me choices – pathways I hadn’t known existed – and it grounded my nonlinear upbringing as something intentional rather than uncertain. Carleton’s department was a place where I felt safe to ask hard questions, to grow, to be imperfect, and to learn alongside passionate peers and professors. It remains one of the most meaningful communities I’ve ever been part of, and its teachings still guide how I work, how I think, and how I walk through the world.