CRWDP webinar student/new research webinar #3

Dr. Margaret Oldfield is our panelist for the 3rd new researcher webinar series. Dr. Oldfield is a social scientist who graduated from the University of Toronto with a PhD in rehabilitation science in 2015 and a Certificate of Advanced Training in Qualitative Health Research Methodology.

Her dissertation, Staying in the Workplace with Fibromyalgia, began her research focus on staying at work with chronic illness. Since graduating, she contributed substantially to three projects. The first, Cancerandwork.ca, is a website designed for cancer survivors who want to remain at or return to work, health professionals, and employers. The second, led by Rebecca Gewurtz and Emile Tompa, The Clear Business Case for Hiring Aspiring Workers: Findings from a research project that looked at the costs and benefits of recruiting and retaining people living with mental illness, also explored the working conditions that enable employees with severe mental illness to remain employed. The third is a collection edited by Ellen MacEachen, The Science and Politics of Work Disability Policy, which will be published in 2019.

In her webinar, Margaret will apply lessons learned from the dissertation and subsequent projects to strategies for employers to retain employees with fibromyalgia. These are part of a research and outreach project she is currently developing with her community partner. She welcomes academic researchers who are interested in joining the project team to contact her at margaret.oldfield@alum.utoronto.ca.