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Karline Wilson-Mitchell

Karline Wilson-Mitchell

Director and Associate Professor
EducationRM, RN, DrNP, MSc, BSN, FACNM
OfficeDCC-685
Phone416-979-5000 ext. 557686
Areas of ExpertiseBirth Outcomes & Health Disparity; Immigration and Settlement, Newcomer Families; Respectful Maternity Care; Global Health and Equity; Reproductive and Environmental Justice.

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, and explores 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. To this end the MEP mentorship program was launched in December 2017, in partnership with the Black, Indigenous and People of Colour Student Collective. It is an evidence-informed, external link program to improve MEP career trajectories and the quality of academic life.

“The opportunity for intellectual partnerships with students excites me!”, remarks Karline. These are students motivated by curiosity to interrogate the intersections of midwifery, community service, ancestral healing traditions, spiritual wholeness and wellness, and respectful leadership. The seeds of the Canadian Midwives of Colour History Project were germinated by midwifery students of colour.

Karline’s research projects have included partnerships with the University of West Indies School of Nursing, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica; IMPAKT Hospital for Sick Children and Ryerson Faculty of Community Services; Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement [Immigration Trajectories of Immigrant Families Project (ITIF)]; Rights for Children and Youth Partnership: Strengthening Collaboration in the Americas (RCYP, external link) and MITAC multidisciplinary project (training student interns, external link to explore Humanized Birth and Obstetrical Violence in Brazil) partnership with Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil; She has worked for CAM Global, external link as a consultant and volunteer developing Tanzanian Respectful Maternity Care and South Sudanese Leadership SMS2, external link workshops for nurses and midwives. She serves as an editorial reviewer for several high impact, professional journals.

  • MWF120:  Normal Childbearing
  • MWF250:  Midwifery Clinical Skills
  • MWF320:  Midwifery Complications & Consultation
  • MWF344/345: Advanced Clinical Skills I, II, Emergency Skills Workshop
  • MWF370:  Field Placement
  • MWF410:  Clerkship
  • MWF420:  Midwifery: Maternal & Newborn Pathology

  • Dr. Dorothy Wills Ryerson Faculty, Viola Desmond Award 2019.
  • Carrington-Hsia-Nieves Doctoral Scholarship for Midwives of Color 2017.

Research Interests:

  • Global applications of Health Information Technology
  • Canadian Health Disparity Research
  • Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Research projects:

  • Project: The Colour of Birth Project.  History of Canadian Midwives of Colour.  Teaser video, external link.  An interdisciplinary collaboration of historians & archivers, filmmaker, web designer, social scientists, anthropologists, midwifery and history students, Immigration & Settlement Studies alumnus. , Co-I: May Friedman PhD, Megan Davies PhD, Margaret MacDonald PhD, Cyrus Sundar Singh PhD (c)

       Year: 2020, Co-PI, Co-PI: Karen Flynn PhD

       Funding received: $50,000 SSHRC Insight Development, $30,000 AOM Career Researcher

  • Project: Humanized Birth and Obstetrical Violence in Brazil

       Year: 2019, Co-Investigator, Co-Applicant

       Funding received: $6000

       Funded by: MITACS

  • Project: Rights for Children & Youth Partnership: Collaboration in the Americas.

       Year: 2012, Co-Investigator, Co-applicant, Governance Team for partners Violence against children Team

       Funding received: $5 Million

       Funded by: Social Studies and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership grant

  • Project: Integration Trajectories of Immigrant Families

       Year: 2013, Co Applicant, Co-Investigator

       Funding received: $153,636

       Funded by: SSHRC Partnership Development Grant

  • Project: Psychosocial Factors Associated With Jamaican Adolescent Pregnancy and Suicidal Behaviour

       Year: 2012, PI (Co-PI=Dr. Joanna Bennett)

       Funding received: $10,000

       Funded by: International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada Latin America and the Caribbean Research Exchange Grants Program (LACREG)

  • Project: Birth Outcomes of New Immigrant and Refugee Women in the Greater Toronto Area

       Year: 2012, PI (Co-Investigator Dr. Anneke Rummens)

       Funding received: $9,000

       Funded by: Health Science Grant, WS RA Grants, RU

Peer-reviewed publications

Articles:

  • Wilson-Mitchell, K., Robinson, J., Sharpe, M. (2018). Teaching Respectful Maternity Care using an Intellectual Partnership Model in Tanzania, J of Midwifery, external link, 60:26-29.
  • Wilson-Mitchell, K., Eustace, L, Robinson, J. Shemdoe, A, Simba, S. (2018). Scoping Review of Literature on RMC and Applications to Tanzania. J of ReproductiveHealth, external link.1;60:27-29.
  • Wilson‐Mitchell K, Handa M. Infusing Diversity and Equity Into Clinical Teaching: Training the Trainers. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health. 2016 Nov 1;61(6):726-36. Conference Proceedings.
  • Tyson H, Wilson‐Mitchell K. Diversifying the midwifery workforce: inclusivity, culturally sensitive bridging, and innovation. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health. 2016 Nov1;61(6):752-8.
  • Petosic, T., Guruge, S., Wilson-Mitchell, K., Tandon, R., Gunraj, A., Robertson, A., ... & Bauder, H. (2015). 
  • Wilson-Mitchell K. Midwifery Care of the Uninsured Migrant Family in the GreaterToronto Area. Can J Midwifery Res Pract 2013:12(2).
  • Wilson-Mitchell K. Mental illness in refugee and immigrant women: A midwife’s perspective on culturally competent care. Can J Midwifery Res Pract 2008;7(3):9-18

Books and Book Chapters:

  • O’Mahony J, Wilson-Mitchell K, Kassam S. Childbearing family nursing. Chapter 7, Family health care nursing: Theory, practice and research; In Robinson M, Padgett Coehlo D, Smith P, editors. 7th ed. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis. 2022. 
  • Elizabeth A. Donnelly EA, Dau KQ, Wilson-Mitchell K, Wren J. Racism and Health Disparities. In: Women’s Gynecologic Health, 4th Ed: With an Introduction to Prenatal and Postpartum Care. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. 2020 Sept 1:13.
  • Loftman, P.O., Watts Carrington, B.J., Clarke, H., Curtis, C., Wilson-Mitchell, K.(2018). Grand midwives of African ancestry in Midwifery: Clients, Context, and Care, Chapter 2.  In (Eds.) T.L. King, M.C. Brucker, K. Osborn, & C.V. Jevitt, Varney’s Midwifery, 6th Ed, external link. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
  • Veltri, L., Wilson-Mitchell, K., O’Mahony, J., (2018). Childbearing family nursing. In J.R. Kaakinen, A. Tabacco, D.P. Cohelo, R. Steele & S.H. Hanson (Eds.) Family health care nursing: Theory, practice and research (6th ed.)(pp. 357-388). Philadelphia: F.A. Davis.
  • Wilson-Mitchell K, Robertson A. P: Looking beyond Class, Culture, Race, and Ability in Family Safety.   In: Bauder H. (ed.) Migration is a Family Affair. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press; 2018; Chapters 5.
  • Valade M, Wilson-Mitchell K. The Family Advantage, Chapter 13, In: Bauder H. (ed.) Migration is a family affair. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press; 2018. Chapter 13.
  • Wilson-Mitchell K, Herbert V. (2014) Black Motherhood and The Power of the Intersectionality Framework: A Midwifery Perspective on the “NewRacism” (pp. 111-121). In Story, K.A. (Ed.) Reconceiving Black Motherhood, An Anthology. Bradford, Ontario: Demeter Press. ISBN: 978-1-927335-43-7.
  • Bailey, A., Zanchetta, M., Pon, G., Velasco, D., Wilson-Mitchell, K., & Hassan, A.,(2016). The audacity of critical awakening. In J. Gingras, Robinson, P., Waddell, J., & Cooper, L. (Eds.), Teaching as Scholarship: Preparing Students for Professional Practice in Community Services. Waterloo, ON: Wilfred Laurier University Press.
  • Veltri, L., Wilson-Mitchell, K., & Bell., K., (2015). Childbearing family nursing. In J.R. Kaakinen, A. Tabacco, D.P. Cohelo, R. Steele & S.H. Hanson (Eds.) Family health care nursing: Theory, practice and research (5th ed.)(pp. 353-386). Philadelphia: F.A. Davis. (ISBN:978-0-8036-3921-8) Awarded American Journal of Nursing Book of Year 2014.
Google Scholar Citations , external link