Having earned her BMath '69 at UWaterloo, she was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to attend the University of Edinburgh for a Ph.D. in Statistics under Professor David Finney. When she returned to Canada, she took a position in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. After 3 years there, she moved to Connecticut to work as a cancer epidemiologist in a research group affiliated with Yale University.
Seven years later, she returned to Canada for a position working with the Ontario Cancer Registry at Cancer Care Ontario with a ‘status’ appointment in epidemiology at the University of Toronto. This provided the opportunity to supervise a number of amazing MSc, MPH and PhD students. There she remained until her semi-retirement in May of 2016.
“I feel passionate about my UW experience. It ultimately led to a wonderful overseas experience and a very fulfilling career in cancer epidemiology,” Loraine explained.
Her math degrees led her to create a meaningful career in the health field. We asked Loraine a few questions about her time at Waterloo, career and advice for the next generation of women looking to follow in her footsteps.
Why did you choose to study at Waterloo and the Faculty of Mathematics?
When I started at Waterloo in 1965, I could specialize in math through either the Faculty of Arts or the Faculty of Science (there was no Faculty of Mathematics). I thought this was so wonderful because I wanted to study both math and languages and wished to study mathematics in a way that was directly relevant to society. Fortunately, the Faculty of Mathematics arrived before I graduated and I was one of the first to be granted a BMath! Extraordinary!
How did Waterloo help you prepare for your career?
I wasn’t in the co-op program, but through summer and part time jobs, I had the opportunity to actually apply my maths – and specifically statistics - knowledge to fields such as psychology and agriculture. This helped me decide, after I completed my PhD, that I wanted to work somewhere that would allow me to continue with this type of work. My first job was in an epidemiology department of a medical school. This allowed me to eventually specialize in cancer epidemiology, where I spent most of my career.
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve done professionally since leaving Waterloo?
In the second half of my career, I focused my work on studying cancer in Canada’s Indigenous people. This was an underresearched area and it’s been very rewarding to see how far we’ve come and how much knowledge we have now. We have enough to support advocacy for action to reduce cancer burden and improve survival in these underserved populations.
What would you tell other young women choosing to study math or computer science at Waterloo?
Follow your passion and take full advantage of any opportunity to explore new dimensions, either through courses or jobs. This will allow you to be more aware of the directions you might want to go after graduation and to avoid getting yourself ‘pigeon-holed’ too early.