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Dehara Thompson is a former professional international soccer player, a community builder, and an independent candidate for Port Coquitlam City Council in the 2026 municipal election.
Her path to public life runs through sport. Dehara played professional soccer internationally, including with Newcastle United, and went on to become one of the first female coaches in BC’s League 1. Today she is the Executive Director of She Plays Sports Society, where she builds programs that create opportunity for women and girls in sport across British Columbia. For the past two years, she has co-directed the African Sport and Cultural Alliance African Soccer Tournament, a 32-year-old institution that brings over a thousand players and spectators together each summer.
Beyond the pitch, Dehara is a business owner, a coach, and a mentor. She has spoken in high schools about social justice and served as a keynote speaker for viaSport’s Embracing Equity initiative on International Women’s Day. Her work sits at the intersection of sport, equity, and community, and it’s rooted in a belief that the lessons of the game (showing up, building teams, lifting others) are the same lessons that build strong communities.
Dehara is the daughter of a Capetonian South African father and a Filipino mother from Kawit, Cavite. She is a wife and a mother of two, a daughter and a son, raising her family in Port Coquitlam, the city she now hopes to serve on council.