Gregory Robinson

Gregory Robinson honoured with award for exceptional volunteer service to Casey House and the HIV/AIDS community

Gregory Robinson is being recognized with The Casey Award for exceptional volunteer service to Casey House and the HIV/AIDS community.

Greg has heart, passion and clinical expertise. He is an educator, collaborator, volunteer, HIV historian and exceptional person, who generously gives of his time to share a wise and heartfelt depth of knowledge with sincerity and candor.

As an HIV positive physician, Robinson left his clinical practice in the 1980s out of fear his patients would judge and avoid him and moved into clinical epidemiology. Now retired, he continues to mentor clinical trainees and contribute to research. He has been a member of Casey House’s research advisory committee, and collaborated on many research projects.

Greg has been involved in educating numerous current and future health providers, specifically spearheading an interprofessional mentorship program with rehabilitation professionals working in the field of HIV. He generously shares his clinical expertise with students along with his personal lived experience of HIV.

Greg was a co-founding member of Realize, formerly known as the Canadian Working Group on HIV and Rehabilitation, and has been involved with the organization since its inception in 2009. There he has served in governance and advisory roles, as well as being a co-faculty member of the University of Toronto’s interprofessional learning course on HIV and rehabilitation. He has also contributed to an online module about HIV for U of T guest faculty and students.

He is a frequent guest speaker, and there is nothing more persuasive than when Greg is in front of an audience of dedicated care providers. He engages them with impassioned reflections on the meaning of compassionate competent care and one nominator says she has witnessed the audience be “visibly moved and potentially forever changed”.

When Greg is not giving of his time to educate, he is a kind, thoughtful, and engaged volunteer who supports Casey House clients when they are most in need. With genuine compassion he listens without judgment and offers people the tenderness that they seek when they are at their most vulnerable.

In many forums Greg speaks on behalf of people living with HIV, and in 2017, he joined a group fellow advocates as peer chefs for Casey House’s June’s HIV+ Eatery, where the public is challenged to eat a meal prepared by people living with HIV.

Greg is an extremely dedicated individual who moves through the world with unwavering compassion, generosity of spirit and dedication to client care. Casey House extends warm congratulations to Gregory Robinson for his volunteerism, which is reminiscent of the spirit of June Callwood.

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