Biographies
J. Karen Scott
Karen Scott grew up in Georgetown, Ontario attending the same elementary school as Joan Kieser. She graduated from the St. Thomas-Elgin General Hospital and completed a BScN at the University of Windsor. Her career path has been long and varied: hospital nursing, public health with the Victorian Order of Nurses in Ontario, Aboriginal Health in Sioux Lookout Zone in northern Ontario and Six Nations in Brantford in southwestern Ontario, as well as occupational health in Toronto and Yellowknife NWT. In the midst of this land-based work, Karen spent four years aboard the research vessel CSS Hudson as Chief Medical Officer.
Back in Toronto at Revenue Canada Taxation, Karen received “boot camp” training in union, management and staff relations. That would serve her well as Regional Occupational Health Nurse in the Northwest Territories. Her last federal position was with Veteran’s Affairs Canada as District Office Nurse for Prince Edward Island. She retired early for medical reasons and returned to Ontario.
Karen has always felt that the stories of northern nurses should be heard. She began building a network and the stories started coming in. With her friend Joan helping with the editing, the first book in the Northern Nurses series was published. To maintain editorial control, Karen founded Kokum Publications. As a young person, she had wanted to be a journalist, but publishing was never part of her education. The learning curve has been steep at times, but seeing the response to these books in print and on disk has made it all worthwhile. Karen now lives in Oakville, Ontario.
Joan Kieser
Joan Kieser (née Cummins) was born and raised in Georgetown, Ontario where she and Karen Scott got to know each other early in elementary school. They have remained friends ever since. After graduating from the University of Toronto and the Ontario College of Education, Joan spent several years teaching in Ontario high schools. Retiring from teaching, she followed her physicist husband to Europe and back to Toronto where she focused her efforts on her extended family.
As a young person, Joan was always fascinated by Arctic and Antarctic adventures. Aware of this childhood interest and of her work as an English teacher and yearbook advisor, Karen asked Joan to help prepare the stories written by northern nurses for publication. It was a challenge and a great pleasure for her to assist in bringing these wonderful true stories to life for everyone to enjoy.
Until 2007, Joan had never been further north than Edmonton. During the preparation of Northern Nurses III, she was able to visit northern Quebec and the Belcher Islands with Karen and Heather Clayton. She heard stories first-hand from the recipients of the care given by these health professionals and she experienced the spirit of the north in the people whom she met. Joan now lives in Ottawa, Ontario.
Heather J. Duncan Clayton
Heather Clayton spent her formative years on lighthouse stations along the coast of New South Wales in Australia, where her father was a lighthouse keeper. Having trained as a registered nurse and midwife, she brought those skills with her when she and two similarly trained nurses set off for Canada in 1957. After a couple of years at federal veterans’ hospitals in Vancouver and Montreal, the three moved to Moose Factory in northern Ontario. Heather’s natural ability to thrive in remote locations led her to work in more isolated nursing stations for a number of years.
When she left the north with a husband and two children, she took on the role of community nurse for First Nations reserves across the Prairies. She continued to work with and for Indigenous people until her retirement and beyond. One of the many joys of this experience was the reawakening of her artistic abilities, allowing her to capture the beautiful faces of the elders on canvas and paper. Heather lives in Edmonton, Alberta.