{{Short description|Indigenous Canadian nurse, midwife, and healthcare advocate (born 1973)}} {{Infobox person | name = Sara Wolfe | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1973}} | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | citizenship = Brunswick House First Nation,<ref name=brook/> Canadian | other_names = | education = Rotman School of Management<ref name=brook/> | occupation = nurse, midwife, healthcare advocate | years_active = 1999–present | known_for = Indigenous midwifery | relations = | website = | profession = | field = | work_institutions = | specialism = | research_field = | notable_works = | prizes = }} '''Sara Wolfe''' (born 1973) is an Anishnawbe registered nurse and registered midwife.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mothers of the Nations: Indigenous Mothering as Global Resistance, Reclaiming and Recovery |last1=Anderson |first1=Kim |last2=Lavell-Harvard |first2=D. Memee |author1-link=Kim Anderson (professor)|author2-link=Dawn Memee Lavell-Harvard |isbn=9781926452364|location=Bradford, Ontario|oclc=959328002}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last1=Lee-Shanok|first1=Philip |date=Jan 8, 2019 |title=New Regent Park program provides holistic support for new Indigenous moms|work=CBC|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/new-downtown-program-supports-new-indigenous-moms-reducing-kids-in-care-1.4967975}}</ref> She is the director of the Indigenous Innovation Initiative at Grand Challenges Canada.<ref name=brook/>
Wolfe is founding partner of Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto,<ref>[https://www.sgmt.ca/ Seventh Generation Midwives]</ref> which is a group of midwives who offer maternity care to women, particularly those from Toronto's downtown area and from the Indigenous community.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/toronto-urban-indigenous-health-report-1.4556421|title=New report finds critical gap in data about Toronto's urban Indigenous community|work=CBC News|access-date=2018-08-22}}</ref> Wolfe was a co-lead on the midwifery-led and Indigenous-governed Toronto Birth Centre.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Lee-Shanok|first=Philip|date=2019-01-08|title=New Regent Park program provides holistic support for new Indigenous moms|work=CBC News|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/new-downtown-program-supports-new-indigenous-moms-reducing-kids-in-care-1.4967975|access-date=2020-08-25}}</ref> Wolfe is Anishnawbe (Ojibway) from the Brunswick House First Nation in northern Ontario.<ref name="brook">{{cite web |title=Sara Wolfe |url=https://brookfieldinstitute.ca/team/sara-wolfe/ |website=Brookfield Institute |access-date=15 March 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.sgmt.ca/sara-wolfe/ |title=SGMT - Our People |website=www.sgmt.ca/sara-wolfe/ |access-date=2018-08-22}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-in-ontario-midwives-help-with-the-rebirth-of-indigenous-pregnancy/|title=In Ontario, midwives help with the rebirth of Indigenous pregnancy care|access-date=2018-08-22}}</ref>
== Education == Wolfe earned her master’s in business administration from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |title=Wolfe, Sara |url=https://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/the-rotman-experience/our-community/people/wolfe-sara-/ |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=Rotman School of Management |language=en}}</ref>
== Career == From 1999 to 2003, Wolfe was an Outpost Nurse in Sioux Lookout and Moose Factory.
Wolfe, with her fellow Indigenous midwifery students Cheryllee Bourgeois and Ellen Blais, started the Toronto Aboriginal Midwives Initiative in 2002, and held community meetings and consultations to determine what the Native community wanted and needed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/midwives-help-bring-new-life-toronto|title=Midwives help bring new life to Toronto|access-date=2018-08-22}}</ref>
She worked as a midwife for the Midwives Collective Toronto<ref>[https://www.midwivescollective.ca/ Midwives Collective Toronto]</ref> from 2003 to 2005. She was Head Midwife in the Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Sunnybrook Women's College Hospital from 2005 to January 2012. From November 2012 to December 2013 she was Interim Executive Director and Midwife Project Co-Lead at the Toronto Birth Centre Inc. The Toronto Birth Centre provides pre-natal classes, labour, birth and postpartum care, complimentary breast-feeding support, massage therapy and nutritional counselling.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ontario Newsroom |url=https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/28203/midwife-led-birth-centre-opens-in-toronto |access-date=2022-05-18 |website=news.ontario.ca}}</ref>
In collaboration with St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Wolfe and Seventh Generation Midwives took on a three-year research project called the Baby Bundle Project to address infant mortality and child removal rates that are higher in Indigenous communities compared to the general population in Canada. The goal of the research was to improve services for Indigenous families.<ref name=":0" /> While identifying barriers to access, the research also worked to identify and provide for mothers' needs, such as midwifery, housing, counselling, or culturally specific traditions.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Easton|first=Megan|date=2019-04-24|title=Delivering Help to Indigenous Parents {{!}} University of Toronto Magazine|url=https://magazine.utoronto.ca/research-ideas/health/delivering-help-to-indigenous-parents/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126023752/https://magazine.utoronto.ca/research-ideas/health/delivering-help-to-indigenous-parents/|archive-date=2021-01-26|access-date=2021-05-09|website=University of Toronto Magazine|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=TVO {{!}} Current affairs, documentaries and education |url=https://www.tvo.org/article/how-one-toronto-based-initiative-is-supporting-indigenous-mothers-and-their-babies |access-date=2022-05-18 |website=www.tvo.org}}</ref>
Wolfe co-led a four-year research project about Indigenous people in Toronto that identified undercounting by Statistics Canada.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Johnson|first=Rhiannon|date=Feb 28, 2018|title=New report finds critical gap in data about Toronto's urban Indigenous community|work=CBC|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/toronto-urban-indigenous-health-report-1.4556421}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Carter|first=Adam|date=Sep 30, 2021|title=Indigenous people in Toronto badly undercounted by census, but experts hopeful for change|work=CBC|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-urban-indigenous-census-1.6192449}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2018-01-24|title=Opinion {{!}} Census vastly undercounts Indigenous population in Toronto, study says|language=en-CA|work=The Toronto Star|url=https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2018/01/24/census-vastly-undercounts-indigenous-population-in-toronto-study-says.html|access-date=2021-11-03|issn=0319-0781}}</ref>
In 2020, the Indigenous Innovation Initiative, of which Sara Wolfe is the director, was launched. The goal is to promote Indigenous economic participation and innovation.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zingel |first=Avery |date=May 13, 2020 |title=Indigenous Innovation Initiative will award up to $250K to projects for gender equality |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/indigenous-innovation-initiative-250k-1.5567163 |access-date=May 18, 2022 |website=CBC News}}</ref>
== Select bibliography == * {{Cite journal|last1=Firestone|first1=Michelle|last2=Maddox|first2=Raglan|last3=O'Campo|first3=Patricia|last4=Smylie|first4=Janet|last5=Bourgeois|first5=Cheryllee|last6=Wolfe|first6=Sara|last7=Snelling|first7=Susan|last8=Manson|first8=Heather|last9=McKnight|first9=Constance|last10=Hebert|first10=Jeanne|last11=Boyer|first11=Roger|date=2020|title=Indigenous Health Service Evaluation: Principles and Guidelines from a Provincial "Three Ribbon" Expert Panel|journal=Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation|volume=34|issue=3|pages=413–424|doi=10.3138/cjpe.68831|issn=0834-1516|last12=Warry|first12=Wayne|last13=van Wagner|first13=Vicki|doi-access=free}} * {{Cite journal|last1=Kitching|first1=George Tjensvoll|last2=Firestone|first2=Michelle|last3=Schei|first3=Berit|last4=Wolfe|first4=Sara|last5=Bourgeois|first5=Cheryllee|last6=O'Campo|first6=Patricia|last7=Rotondi|first7=Michael|last8=Nisenbaum|first8=Rosane|last9=Maddox|first9=Raglan|last10=Smylie|first10=Janet|date=February 2020|title=Unmet health needs and discrimination by healthcare providers among an Indigenous population in Toronto, Canada|journal=Canadian Journal of Public Health|volume=111|issue=1|pages=40–49|doi=10.17269/s41997-019-00242-z|pmid=31435849 |pmc=7046890 |issn=0008-4263|doi-access=free}}
== See also == * Nicolle Gonzales
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://torontobirthcentre.ca/ Toronto Birth Centre] official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe, Sara}} Category:1973 births Category:21st-century First Nations people Category:Activists from Toronto Category:Canadian midwives Category:Canadian Ojibwe people Category:Canadian women human rights activists Category:Canadian women nurses Category:Canadian nurses Category:Living people Category:Ojibwe women Category:Scientists from Toronto Category:Rotman School of Management alumni Category:21st-century First Nations women Category:21st-century Canadian women scientists Category:21st-century nurses