Safiqa Kara | Top 40 Under 40 2025

Age: 39

Occupation: Executive Director, Generations Calgary

Although Safiqa Kara is relatively young, she spends a lot of time thinking about aging. A nurse by training, Kara unintentionally started her career in long-term care more than 15 years ago. An infectiously friendly people person, she was surprised by how much she enjoyed connecting with elderly residents.

“I was 23 working with 90-year-olds,” Kara says. “I fell in love with the fact they had lived these incredible lives and I got to be part of that at the end.”

Around that same time, the Aga Khan started an initiative among Ismaili Muslims to develop multi-generational community and housing developments, dubbed Generations. Kara joined Generations Calgary in 2019 as director of care (and its first employee) and ran with that vision. She developed a hybrid facility integrating senior care with a community centre filled with culturally responsive programming. Today, Generations Calgary is the first fully integrated seniors’ housing and community centre in Canada, and Kara has the role of executive director.

Kara oversees the facility’s 120 care beds and 40 independent-living apartments that mostly, but not exclusively, house South Asian residents, as well as accommodate 250 staff members and more than 1,200 weekly visitors to the community hub. Under Kara’s leadership, Generations has established partnerships with three AI startups to improve documentation and fall prevention. Kara also completed an MBA in global health in 2023.

As big as Kara’s vision is, she hasn’t stopped thinking about her residents on a micro level. Her primary goal is ensuring each resident’s right to age with dignity and sense of purpose as they enter the final years of their lives.

“We have an average 500 days to make an impact on these people’s lives from the time they move in here,” Kara says. “We have a small window of opportunity to make their last 500 days the best possible.”

Thank yous
“My parents (Ayaz and Nayaz Kara); uncle (Moez Hirji); partner (Eliza Seaborn); sister-in-law (Safira Lakhani); brother (Hafiz Kara); and my incredible Generations teams; my RCMS and Educators, Narmin Visanji, Cindy Simpson and Jackie Hauck.”