Karline Wilson-Mitchell delivers a brighter future

Helping people thrive and succeed are intrinsic to Karline Wilson-Mitchell’s passion and purpose. The associate professor and former director of Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU) School of Midwifery came to Ontario from Jamaica when she was four years old. Karline’s parents had post-secondary degrees — her father was an accountant and her mother a psychiatric nurse — but their education and training were not recognized and they needed to be re-credentialed.

“They experienced what many internationally educated professionals experienced,” she said. “There were not very many people of colour on the street [in the 1960s]. So they experienced a great deal of discrimination challenges and barriers. They were fighters though.”

After Karline graduated from the School of Nursing in 1988, she pursued a master’s degree in nurse-midwifery in the U.S. and had a thriving career there as a midwife and educator. In 2008, she was recruited to come back and teach at TMU. However, her 20-year absence from Canada meant that Karline also needed to re-credential. 

“While I was teaching at TMU, I was also a student at TMU, doing the bridging program for nine months,” she recalled. “I was doing placements. I was a part-time labour and delivery nurse to put food on the table.”

The experience informs Karline’s perspective, particularly with mature students, who have responsibilities in addition to their academic pursuits. “It gave me an insider view of what our students go through when they are studying and working and managing their families and doing all the things that they do,” she said.

That is why Karline has been steadfast in helping to alleviate the financial burdens of students from equity-deserving groups. Though Karline has been a health-care professional for more than 40 years, she remains the only African Afro descendant professor of midwifery in Canada, in a field where representation and inclusivity are vital. She knows that a well-timed scholarship can make the difference between a student dropping out or becoming a life-saving health-care practitioner.

Karline encourages other TMU graduates to give back like she has. “Be the spark. It’s truly a labour of love.”

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