From the WCH Archives.
As Robin Mason, scientist at Women’s College Hospital’s Research and Innovation Institute, gets ready to retire, the WCH Archives had the pleasure of interviewing her about her career, her achievements, and what WCH has meant to her over the last twenty plus years.
After Robin Mason completed a master’s degree in English Literature, she never imagined that she would then embark on a career in health research. Her first introduction to the field came when she was completing a PhD in Community Psychology. A research-based internship in a public health unit opened her eyes to the value of participatory and qualitative research.
Mason was approached by Dr. Robin Badgley about a short-term contract at the Centre for Research in Women’s Health (CRWH) at WCH. Badgley was one of the main drivers to establish a focus within the centre of research on gender-based violence. She accepted the contract to look at developing a training institute on domestic violence for healthcare providers, and then was asked to develop a hospital policy on domestic violence and healthcare. In 2001, Mason was hired on as a full-time scientist at the CRWH to develop a domestic violence education and training program for healthcare providers, and as she explains, “here I am 24 years later”.
When asked about her career, Mason lights up when talking about the people who encouraged, supported, and mentored her over the last two decades at WCH. Dr. Robin Badgley, the first facilitator of the Violence and Health Research Initiative, was one of her first role models at the hospital and in the field. She is also grateful to her colleagues, as well as the directors and vice-presidents of research, and hospital leadership. As she explains, “I want it on the record how grateful I am to have been able to work in a place where my own values are reflected in the organization, and I have been given a certain amount of freedom to pursue alternative strategies to the work”.
Mason will be greatly missed by her colleagues. As Katharine Schwartz, director of the Research and Innovation Institute at WCH, explains,
“Robin has been a mainstay of my time at WCH and could always be counted on to lend her support to different institutional initiatives. She made a point of being present for our Summer Student Research Days, engaging with the students and asking questions, and always helping others to feel valued and recognized. Her sincere and supportive presence is going to be missed.”
Throughout her career as a scientist at the WCRI, Mason has completed and published numerous research studies on gender-based violence, influenced policies at various levels of government, and developed educational tools for healthcare providers. When asked about the projects that she is most proud of at WCH, she was quick to point to those that related to mentorship and medical education.
Mason started the first Graduate Student Research Day at the CRWH, an annual tradition that continues at the WCRI. She helped to establish the dveducation.ca web portal that now holds five curriculum and has been accessed by more than 20,000 learners. During her career she was also the scientific lead of Women’s Xchange and a contributor to the first Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada’s guidelines on domestic violence.
Most recently, Mason has shifted her research focus to the area of anti-sex trafficking at the WCRI. As she explains, it “has come at a time when there has been growing public acknowledgement and recognition of the prevalence and serious nature of women being trafficked in our province, so we have developed this really very robust research program to look at sex trafficking and how the social service and healthcare sectors can be responding to the needs of sex trafficked individuals”.
Organizations like the HART Foundation provide funding for this new and innovative research. Mason believes that “Women’s was approached because of its history, its activities in this area, and its ability to pivot and respond to issues as issues emerge.”
Although Robin Mason will retire at the end of September, she will remain an Emeritus Scientist at the WCRI. However, if she ever feels a longing to connect with WCH, she need only to look out her window. Mason shared that one of the original lava rocks that surrounded the statue of Woman from the old hospital building now resides in her front yard.