Leadership

Karim Kanji

Founder · Dean, Faculty of Holistic Medicine · Head Instructor · RMT

Karim leads academic and clinical education and still teaches the core curriculum to in-class and online students. He built NAKH's method: Western anatomy, pathology, and assessment braided with Eastern modalities, delivered through a flowing full-body routine rather than a grab-bag of techniques.

The founding story is not a marketing line. After his son was born with special needs, the family moved closer to SickKids. When that was not enough, Karim trained in Hamilton in massage, reflexology, and aromatherapy, then fused that learning with his NAIT background. Helping his son is why the school exists. Helping everyone who walks in is why it still exists.

He has been called a master of all trades for a reason: electronics, programming, aircraft maintenance, audio/video production, reflexology, aromatherapy, massage, and disaster management (Justice Institute of BC). He was nominated for the Dr. Rogers Prize and served on the boards of the NHPC and ARMTA. His favourite part of the work is still the same: a client walks in with pain and walks out without it, with some guidance for the emotional side as well. Outside the clinic he loves sports, music, building and rebuilding the family home with his kids, and community volunteer work.

Nevin Kanji

Co-Founder · Assistant Provost · Manager of Student Finances and Admissions

Nevin's title is long because the job is long. Admissions interviews, student finances, loan applications, contracts, compliance, housing leads, even transportation help. For a solid stretch of years she was the reason the business was still here. Hussain's words, not ours.

She spent over a decade at TD Canada Trust as a Financial Services Representative and later as a credit assistant to a mobile mortgage specialist, working personal and commercial files, mutual funds, GICs, and RRSPs. Before that she was a career consultant for companies going through downsizing. That mix — money, paperwork, and people in transition — is exactly what NAKH students need.

The three pillars she wants on the record: integrity, honesty, and transparency. Favourite part of the job is watching transfer students who were told they would never make it graduate, then get the hug. In her own life she leads bereavement support in her community, helps families with funerals, is passionate about EAL for newcomers, and still makes time for reading, dancing, and music. She wants prospective students to know the employment and graduation outcomes are real, and that they will be treated as family, not a file number.

Aliana Kanji

Chief Operating Officer · Director of Curriculum and Marketing

Aliana runs daily operations, academic programming, marketing, and curriculum development. She teaches business, pathology, pharmacology, and business marketing, and she sees clients for life coaching and psychoanalytic therapy. The rebrand to NAKH Collective is in large part her push to stop running two companies that were already one family, and to educate the public about clinical massage instead of only training therapists.

Credentials: B.Sc. Neuroscience and Business, Dalhousie University (2020); Bachelor of Commerce in Legal Studies and Psychology, MacEwan University (2024); plus holistic nutrition, life coaching, conflict resolution, and sound healing studies. She is a mental health and justice advocate, co-hosts a holistic living podcast, and has spent the last several years leaning harder into hiking, nutrition, and natural living. Favourite part of the job: creativity — turning science into a program people can actually use.

Hussain Kanji

Chief Technology Officer · Director of Strategy

Hussain owns the technical layer: servers, security, Alberta Education file compliance, and the Microsoft Teams LMS that hybrid students live in. He does not write the massage curriculum. He makes sure the classroom — physical and virtual — actually works. When a student flagged bad camera and audio, the system was replaced that day.

He studied at Concordia University of Edmonton and NAIT, collecting the useful skills without finishing the last few credits on two degrees, then put that energy into the family business from 2016 onward. He likes competitive problems, learning new fields in his downtime, and keeping the family taken care of. For him the Collective is the culmination of what his dad started before Aliana was born: help people help themselves, without becoming a faceless institution.

Nerissa Kanji

Director of Student Relations · Clinic Manager

Nerissa is the student-facing organizer: schedules, clinic operations, events, wellness initiatives, and the first inbox when someone needs a shift changed. She also works clinic promotions and packages. Hospitality muscle memory from 15 years in restaurants, including event coordination, shows up in how thoroughly she runs a room.

She holds a B.A. in Criminology from Simon Fraser University (2016), Dean's and President's Honour Roll, plus accelerated leadership / conflict-resolution training. She is a mom, a serious event planner, and an animal rescue person with four dogs and a long-term dream of a sanctuary for senior shelter dogs. Favourite thing about the job is the flexibility to work while raising her daughter, and the lack of bureaucracy when a good idea is ready to run.