From the literary world to the real world
Katie Wood's life plan veered off its intended path while she was pursuing her master's in English. As part of her course work, Wood focused on feminist theory and domestic violence, and the ways in which women were represented in literature. Her reading kindled a long-standing interest in mental health issues, and a keen desire to put that passion into practice.
"I was dissatisfied with how far removed I was from the community," Wood says. Seeking an alternative, she stumbled onto the JD/MSW program at the University of Toronto. "I was always interested in social work," she remembers. "You really are in the trenches and able to work one-on-one with people to effect change." Wood figured a legal education would complement that interest, and open doors down the road. The decision proved to be serendipitous.
"Everything I ended up doing as part of that program was on my list before I started," she says. "It was a perfect fit for me."
That list is long and varied. She's worked with marginalized women, with children in high-conflict custody cases, and also as a commercial litigator in a downtown Toronto law firm. Since graduating in 2004, it seems Wood has done it all.
Today, she's at Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney General, developing and implementing policy for the province's family court system. It's her job to make the system more accessible to the people who use it, and Wood says her office is seeing tangible changes - rolling out a series of ambitious reform efforts.
"It's not just developing policy," she says. "The great thing about my job is implementing policy." Just as she hoped, Katie Wood is putting her passion into practice, and her reward is in the results.
Story by Karen Gross
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