Twin iSchool alums fund timely new scholarship in health and biomedical information

Jul 18, 2022

Elizabeth Reid and Marilyn Hernandez pose with the iSchool Dean in 2015. — *Elizabeth Reid (left) and Marilyn Hernandez with former Faculty of Information Dean Seamus Ross at an Alumni Reunion event in 2015.*

While the timing may make it look like the Faculty of Information’s newest scholarship was inspired by the global pandemic, the award in in health and biomedical information was actually in the works well before anyone had even heard of Covid-19.

Elizabeth Reid (BSc 1971 VIC, BEd 1972, MLS 1974) and Marilyn Hernandez (BSc 1971 VIC, MLS 1973) are non-identical twin sisters who earned bachelor of science degrees at U of T before going on to study library science in the ‘70s. The impetus for their new award came from seeing innovative student research at U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

The journey began when Hernandez and her husband Helios Hernandez funded Hernandez Family Oncology MD/PhD Fellowship in 2017. When the Hernandezes, who live in Winnipeg, would visit Toronto, they would often attend medical faculty events and meet with researchers to familiarize themselves with the kind of work Hernandez Fellowship recipients were doing. If they weren’t able to make it, Reid sometimes attended in their absence. The sisters were impressed.

In a photo from 1977, Marilyn Hernandez looks up from reading papers at her desk.

In a photo from 1974, Elizabeth Reid smiles as she arranges medical journals on a display shelf.

While Hernandez and Reid have made modest annual donations to the Faculty of Information over the years, as well as legacy commitments, seeing the effects of the Hernandez family gift to medicine inspired them to put their heads together and see if they could have a similar impact at the Faculty of Information. They especially liked the idea of targeting their giving to a specific field.

Biomedical information and health was a natural fit given the sisters’ undergraduate degrees and their long and accomplished careers in medical and health librarianship. After earning her third degree in 1974, Reid worked exclusively in teaching hospitals in the Toronto region. Over the years, she was also chair of the local chapter of the Medical Library Association, the Toronto Health Libraries Association, and the Ontario Hospital Libraries Association.

Hernandez, who after earning her MLS in 1973 worked for the Manitoba government, including at the Department of Health and Social Development, was also extensively involved in associations including as President of the Manitoba Health Libraries Association and a Director of the Canadian Health Libraries Association.

In 2020 Hernandez and Reid made an initial donation of $25,000 to set up the Elizabeth Reid and Marilyn Hernandez Graduate Scholarship in Biomedical/Health Information for students in the Master of Information program. Through the Faculty of Information’s matching program, their donation was doubled with an additional grant of $25,000. This enabled the award to be created as an endowed fund and extended the life of the award from five years to continuing in perpetuity.

Creating opportunities for students in health and biomedical information

“Scholarships such as these are so important in creating opportunities and lowering barriers for our students,” said Dean Wendy Duff, who has made funding for fellowships, awards and grants a top priority at the Faculty of Information. “I’m so grateful that these two sisters and alumnae stepped forward to establish this wonderful award, and I’m thrilled that we can extend the award’s impact to many more students with a matching grant.

For Reid and Hernandez, the match was “a big factor,” says Reid. “It allowed us to get to a point where we could offer what I would call a meaningful scholarship.”

The match was a big factor. It allowed us to get to a point where we could offer a meaningful scholarship.

Recipients of the new scholarship must have a focus on health, be it in library or data science, the newest concentration at the Faculty of Information, or “anything in the future relating some kind of health care information delivery,” said Hernandez, adding that they didn’t want the scholarship to be too restrictive.

The match was a big factor. It allowed us to get to a point where we could offer a meaningful scholarship.

The sisters especially enjoyed receiving a letter from the first award winner, Heba Roble (MI 2022), who graduated in June 2022 in the Knowledge Management and Information Management concentration. “My primary research interest [is] in understanding the role of privacy and health in the inequitable eHealth and mHealth adoption among minority groups,” she wrote, adding that she plans to continue her studies at the University’s Institute of Health, Policy, Management and Evaluation. “Without this award, reaching the next step in my academic journey would not be possible.”

Even if Covid-19 wasn’t the impetus behind the new scholarship, its launch during the pandemic underlined its relevance. “It definitely showed the value of having trained people in the field of health information,” said Reid. “Everything all sort of came together.”

Originally posted by the Faculty of Information