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Biographical summary

Dr. Kathryn Woodcock is distinguished in community service and governance, and an experienced administrator, decision-maker, and researcher.

Dr. Woodcock currently serves Ontario's Minister of Community and Social Services on her Accessibility Standards Advisory Council. She also serves on the Technical Standards and Safety Authority Consumer Advisory Council and Amusement Devices Council. She has served on numerous professional and community boards and councils including the Ontario Service Safety Alliance, the National Captioning Institute (USA), the Health Care Occupational Health and Safety Association, the Human Factors Association of Canada (Association of Canadian Ergonomists), and the Ontario Minister of Health’s Advisory Committee on Hearing Aid Services, among others. As a member of the Ontario Council of Regents, she served on the governance committee which worked to maximize diversity and talent on community college boards, and was appointed the first Chair of the College Standards and Accreditation Council in 1993-1994. As the first deaf President of The Canadian Hearing Society, Dr. Woodcock championed the CHS Equity program, funded by the Trillium Foundation to serve as an incubator for deaf management talent, and initiated the first strategic planning and Board structural reviews to be undertaken in over 10 years.

The first Canadian on the Association of Late-Deafened Adults board, she coordinated its by-laws revision and originated its policy and procedure manual, served on four program committees, and organized one conference, and is among the most prolific writers and editors to contribute to that organization. While she has served the community amply at the policy and governance level, she also continues her involvement in direct volunteerism. She created The Deafened People Page on the world wide web in 1996, which remains the premier information source on acquired deafness in the world, and she responds to correspondence from deafened people around the world. Her book "Deafened People: Adjustment and Support" has been praised by insiders as a definitive guide to this group that even deaf-services providers do not understand.

Kathryn Woodcock received the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship (O.M.C.) and other honours and awards for her community service and advocacy, and voluntarism from several organizations, including Professional Engineers of Ontario, Canadian Council of Professional Engineers, the Association of Late-Deafened Adults and the Ontario Association of the Deaf, and the Outstanding Alumni Medal from the University of Waterloo Faculty of Engineering.

As a researcher, Dr. Woodcock studies occupational safety, accident investigation and safety inspection. She has reported on her research at conferences in Canada and abroad, and published scientific articles in journals and monographs.

Dr. Woodcock is an Associate Professor in the School of Occupational and Public Health at Ryerson University, and an adjunct scientist of the Institute for Work and Health. Previously she taught graduate and undergraduate courses in industrial engineering and ergonomics at Rochester Institute of Technology/National Technical Institute for the Deaf and the University of Waterloo. She is a member of several professional associations in the field of ergonomics. She served for three years on the Executive Council of the Human Factors Association of Canada (Association of Canadian Ergonomists) and has represented that association in Canadian Standards Association technical committee service.

Outside the academic world, she managed the Performance Benchmarks & Analysis section in the Best Practices Branch of the Prevention Division at the Ontario Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB) for two years. Prior to beginning full time doctoral studies, she was for eight years Vice President–Hospital Services at Centenary Health Centre, responsible for a $20 million annual budget and staff of 600. She initiated or oversaw such major projects as the modernization of an aging physical plant, extensive asbestos removal from operational areas, upgrading of fire protection systems, major changes in work organization and organizational culture, subsidized staff literacy, numeracy and sign language programs, replacement of telecommunication systems, implementation of innovative contracting and purchasing arrangements, pace-setting chemical safety (pre-WHMIS) information program, creation of a biomedical engineering service, 33% facility expansion and concomitant organizational growth, new support service and staff facilities. She served the health care industry in provincial collective bargaining negotiations in 1988–1989, was a Director of the former Health Care Occupational Health and Safety Association from 1984–1990, and while chair of the regional safety coordinators’ professional development group, reorganized membership and educational programming to increase attendance and stimulate new learning. Dr. Woodcock has combined her expertise in management with her experience with community issues to consult to agencies in Ontario and Massachusetts in business planning and consumer-centred service specification and evaluation, and address business and community audiences on diversity and reasonable accommodation from a management and ergonomic standpoint.

A professional engineer, she became the first deaf woman to receive a Ph.D. in engineering in 1996, when she completed her degree in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. She had previously earned undergraduate and Masters degrees at the University of Waterloo in Systems Design Engineering.

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