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= Lillie Johnson =

Lillie Johnson is a Jamaican-Canadian teacher, midwife, and nurse. She is the founder of the Sickle Cell Association of Ontario and served as Ontario's first Black Director of Public Health.

Early Life
Johnson was born in Jamaica in 1922 as the third child and first daughter in a family of nine children. Both of her parents were teachers. She moved to Canada in 1960, having previously lived and worked in Jamaica, England, and Scotland.

Education
Johnson trained as a nurse and midwife with the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she graduated in 1954. She was the first Jamaican nurse to train with the hospital. She attended the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto as a part-time student in the early 1960s.

Career
Johnson began her teaching career in Jamaica before moving to Scotland in the early 1950s to pursue nursing. Upon graduating as a Registered Nurse, Johnson moved back to Jamaica briefly where she worked for University College of the West Indies Hospital. In 1958 she moved to New Jersey and worked as a nurse at Newark Beth Israel Medical Centre. When Johnson moved to Canada just two years later, in 1960, she began work with the Red Cross where she was stationed at Red Lake near the Ontario and Manitoba border. She later transferred to work with St. Joseph's Health Center and the Hospital for Sick Children.

Upon moving to Toronto, Johnson taught a course in Child and Maternal Health at Humber College. She served as a consultant for the Ministry of Health before becoming the Director of Nursing Services at Leeds, Grenville, and Lanark Health Unit for Eastern Ontario.

Sickle Cell Disease and advocacy
Johnson is known for her decades of advocacy and awareness for Sickle Cell Disease. In her early years as a nurse in the 1960s and 1970s she treated many patients with Sickle Cell Disease at a time when many doctors were unfamiliar with the symptoms.

In 1981, Johnson started the Sickle Cell Association of Ontario (SCAO). She was an early advocate for Sickle Cell screening to be included in standard newborn screenings for genetic diseases. This was made standard practice in 2005 when the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care added Sickle Cell Disease to the list of genetic diseases for universal newborn screening.

Johnson formally retired in 1988. Following her retirement she volunteered with the Canadian University Service Oversees (CUSO international) where she spent six years in Jamaica providing treatment and health information services to local communities. In 2008 Johnson co-founded the TAIBU Community Health Centre in Scarborough. The clinic is located in Malvern and focuses on provided culturally affirming healthcare to Black-identifying residents in the community.

Publications
In 2015 Johnson published her memoir My Dream through the Jamaican Canadian Association Centre.

Honours and awards

 * Toronto Public Health Champion Award (2009)


 * Order of Ontario (2011)
 * Distinguished Alumnus Award - Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing University of Toronto (2011)
 * Black Health Alliance Legacy Award (2014)
 * Ryerson University Viola Desmond Award (2015)
 * Torch Bearer for the Pan-Am Games (2015)
 * 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women Honoree (2016)
 * Long-Term Care Lifetime Achievement Award - Ontario Long-Term Care Association (2016)
 * Ontario Senior Achievement Award (2017)