Dr. Karline Wilson

BIO

 

DrNP, RN, RM, CNM, FACNM

Karline Wilson-Mitchell is passionate about reproductive justice that informs midwifery education, practice and global partnerships. Since 1992, Karline’s clinical work grew from the U.S. (urban and rural) to Canada (Ontario, remote Quebec) and then to midwifery education and leadership building in the Global South (Jamaica, Tanzania, Zambia, Burundi, South Sudan). Her scholarship explores the skills and infrastructure necessary to diversify the midwifery workforce, to explore strategies that facilitate equitable and inclusive work environments for midwives and vulnerable populations. Her goal is to promote resilience and sagacity in vulnerable midwifery students.  Karline has been teaching in Toronto Metropolitan University's Midwifery Education Program since 2008.

In the Fall of 2019, Karline launched  the Canadian Midwives of Colour History Project motivated by the desires of racialized midwifery students to know the history of racialized midwives in Canada.  The revelation of these stories and representations of midwives of colour in the historical text could empower racialized students, inform practice and midwifery curriculum. The process of mining for facts and truth, unveils amazing stories of resilience and advocacy in Canada's earliest racialized immigrant and refugee communities.  The project is consequently an act of social justice or healing for  the student researchers.

Other projects & collaborations:

 

Co-PI: Perceptions of Barriers to Quality Maternity Care for Adolescents in the Americas. Universidade Fedral Fluminense, Brazil & RU . Respectful Maternity Care in the Americas (Co-PI Dr. Valdecyr Herdy Alves. Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil & RU. 2019 (ongoing)

 

Co-I. Humanized Birth in Brazil, successful MITACS grant for research internships in summer 2019 for interdisciplinary team nursing/midwifery/social work/nutrition students. (Co-investigators Drs. Margareth Zanchetta, Sepali Guruge). 2019 (ongoing)

 

Steering Council member on the RESPCCT (external link)  Canada Project, PI Dr. Saras Vedam(UBC Birth Place Lab) - 2019-2020 (ongoing). Participated in delphi method for Community-based methodology development via focus groups in marginalized North American communities, study of respectful maternity care (PI Dr. Saras Vedam).

 

PI. Perceptions of Barriers to Quality Maternity Care for Jamaican Adolescents –Research study (in partial fulfillment of Doctor of Nursing Practice Degree at Frontier Nursing University)

 

Co-applicant. Rights for Children & Youth Partnership (RCYP (external link) ): Collaboration in the Americas: Violence and Youth Team with Drs. Barbara Fallon, Christine Wekerle, Godfrey St. Bernard& Marta Suazo ongoing 2015 (ongoing).

 

Co-applicant. Integration Trajectories of Immigrant Families (ITIF): Awarded SSHRC Partnership Development Grant. 2014-2019.

 

PI. Psychosocial Factors Associated with Jamaican Adolescent Pregnancy and Suicidal Behaviour/”Factors associated with Adolescent Pregnancy, Psychological Distress and Suicidal Behaviour: An Exploratory Study”, Funded by International Development Research Centre, Canada Latin America and the Caribbean Research Exchange Grants Program (LACREG) IDRC. Co-PI Dr. Joanna Bennett, UWI, Jamaica, Collaborators Victoria Jubilee Hospital and Spanish Town Hospital. 2012.

 

PI. The Experience of Black Motherhood Amongst Black Women in Toronto. 2012.

 

PI.  Maternal & Newborn Health Status of Uninsured New Immigrant and Refugee Women in the GTA, Ryerson Health Grant funding (birth outcome research). Co-investigator, Dr. Anneke Joanna Rummens, Hospital for Sick Children, 2011.