Biography

Hilda is totally committed to social justice, decreasing health disparities, defending Medicare, and embracing the richness of our diversities and to championing the social and environmental determinants of health and the importance of nursing health human resource strategies.

Enthralled with life-long learning, Hilda began her career with a diploma of Nursing from York Regional School of Nursing (now Seneca College), received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Ryerson University in 1998 and her Masters of Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in 2004.

She is a dedicated registered nurse with a Certificate of Competence from the College of Nurses of Ontario.

Hilda began working in nursing in 1972 on a medical unit at Women's College Hospital for two years and then joined Mount Sinai Hospital as a staff nurses on postpartum.

In 1977 after her son was born, she resigned her full-time position, took a year off and then worked casually with nursing registries, in a variety of hospitals in a variety of nursing areas including patient's homes. Hilda returned to work part-time at Mount Sinai Hospital in 1982 as a member of the 7th Level.

She was the Acting Nursing Unit Administrator in 1992 when Mount Sinai Hospital became an all-RN staff thus laying off all the Registered Nursing Assistants who were working on the 7th level. Hilda provided emotional support, reference letters and honesty about the impact of those layoffs on morale and emotional well-being of both employees who were laid-off and the staff who survived and continued to provide patient care.

In 2000, she was the Acting Educator during the challenging mergers of the obstetrical programs at University Hospital and Mount Sinai.

From 2002 to 2004, Hilda obtained a secondment at RNAO as the Project Manager for Membership and Services, a position that she thoroughly enjoyed. In those two years, she created on-line programs, Hub and Marsh Scholarships, led the Student Placement, introduced a Disability Insurance for members, was the key contact for Affinity services and increased ONA membership in RNAO by 10%.

In 2004, she returned to Mount Sinai Hospital and became one of the team leaders and redesigned the workload measurement tool GRASP.

In 2005, as a sessional instructor she taught and mentored International students at George Brown College including RNAO's Best Practice Guidelines into the case studies.

In 2007, after participating in RNAO's Candidate Training, Hilda sought the Liberal Provincial nomination in Trinity-Spadina, did not get it and then took on the role of Chair of Health Policy for the acclaimed candidate, Kate Holloway. Kate learned about the impact of poverty and about the advantages of Medicare.

From 2006-2008 Hilda served on RNAO's Board of Directors as the Member at Large for Socio-Political Affairs. She became Chair of both the LAP and Policy Analysis and Development Committees and a member of the Finance Committee. She was at the press releases when the Liberal government announced the introduction of provincial legislation to ban cosmetic pesticides and ban smoking in cars with small children. She moderated the group that met with MPP David Zimmer during January's day at Queen's Park.

She is currently working as a casual nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital while actively involved in numerous RNAO activities including being Mount Sinai Hospital's Workplace Liaison and participating in RNAO focus groups and surveys.

Hilda was an Executive member of her synagogue, Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda and represented the synagogue in a conference in Washington and was a Board member of the International Women's League for Conservative Judaism.