In 1967, nursing was among the few career options available to young Canadian women. That spring, Margo Mayo graduated as an RN from the Holy Cross Hospital School of Nursing in Alberta. She had no idea that her career would take her from operating rooms to Egyptian desserts, a Navy destroyer and mission control at NASA or that it would span rocket science to brain surgery. Her willingness to try almost anything and be only woman in the room trying it would lead Margo to an unmatched and exciting career.
IN THE BEGINNING
Her nursing career started in the very respectable Cardiac Recovery Room at the University of Alberta Hospital. But her feet were itchy, so she hopped around, gaining new nursing experiences in Spence Bay NTW, Norway House, Manitoba and London, England.
When she returned from England, she wanted to try a new adventure, “I investigated various career paths,” Margo recalls, “and the military was the only one with equal pay. We were paid by the rank we were at, like everyone else. And I thought, ‘That could be fun!’.” Jokingly, she adds,’ That’s the last time I believed a recruiter.”
BREAKING GENDER BARRIER
It was 1970, and women comprised only a tiny percentage of the Canadian Armed Forces—approximately 1.5 percent. Margo was based in Trenton, Ontario, where she and two other nurses and one female doctor worked among their male colleagues, providing outpatient services and aeromedical evacuations.
“I lived in a world of mostly men. They needed nurses, and so we were starting to be accepted in most places. I got used to working in scenarios with lots of men.”
QUEEN ELIZABETH INTERVENES
Margo found the majority of her male co-workers to be friendly and accommodating. But not all; one particularly memorable incident required Queen Elizabeth II’s support.
“Nurses were finally allowed to attend staff school to become staff officers,” she recalls. “I got there, and there were these combat arms guys who decided that women really had no business being officers.”
She recalls arguing with them on and off with them for a couple of months. One day, she sat listening to one of the gentlemen rant about how women weren’t leaders, didn’t know what they were doing and how he would quit before working for a female. “It was driving me nuts!”
“I said to him, finally, ‘Does the name Queen Elizabeth the Second strike a familiar note at all?’ He just looked at me. I said, ‘If not, you might want to glance at your commissioning scroll, and I think you’ll find that she is your boss. You work for a woman now. We all do.’”
After Queen Elizabeth intervened, things changed, “It was a major victory,” laughs Margo.
MEDICAL MISSION IN EGYPT
In 1973, she travelled with a small medical unit to Egypt as the Canadian Forces medical unit contingent of the UN Emergency Forces Middle East. She made many friends among fellow medical staff and had many adventures. One moment gave her pause to reflect on the importance of Canada’s mission in the Middle East.
“I was driving a jeep, in uniform, of course. And ours has a little Canadian flag on the shoulder. I was stopped at a traffic light, and this fellow came running out from the sidelines. He grabbed hold of my arm, shook it, and said, ‘Thank you, Canada! Thank you, Canada!’ And I thought to myself, ‘Maybe we’re doing a good thing here.'”
While in Egypt, Margo created a training video on malaria that was presented to the Middle Eastern Medical Society. It was all in a day’s work for Margo, but it hinted at the direction of her career that would take her away from nursing and into the world of training.
FALLING IN LOVE WITH TEACHING
She finished her Bachelor of Science in 1983 and started teaching at the Canadian Forces Medical Services School in Borden, Ontario. It was a pivotal opportunity. “I adored my students and fell madly in love with teaching.” She was hooked, and she reclassified to Training and Development.
“My first project was pilot validation training for the CH147 Chinook helicopter. I was teaching people how to teach.”
Margo was uniquely situated. She had medical training, an ability to see patterns, a fearlessness of technology, and an excellent teaching ability. That’s how she ended up spending time in the Navy, serving as the Standards Officer for the Engineering Division of the Canadian Forces Fleet School in Halifax.
She used her skills to develop technical training for marine engineers, hull technicians and electrical technicians. She developed courses, exams and instructor monitoring systems. In short, she taught others how to teach.
FROM THE NAVY TO NASA
“They gave me my own destroyer,” she jokes. “The St Croix, she had no weapons, and she never left the docks, but her engines were used as classrooms. She was a training ground, and she was well used.”
Computer use was on the rise all around her, and Margo kept pace, learning and utilizing whatever technology was available to advance the military’s ability to train its forces. She upgraded her education, earning her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Alberta and then her Master of Science in Education Psychology from the University of Calgary.
But in 1990, after 20 years of serving with the Canadian Armed Forces, Margo felt like she had hit a ceiling in her career. She retired and went to work for Calgary General Hospital as the Director of Education Resources. Shortly after that, she began work on her PhD, focusing on a Computer Applications Speciality for Education Psychology.
She founded Mayo Education Strategies in 1994. She worked on instructional design projects that equipped learners to understand everything from Equine Neurology to Marketing to Helicopter Mechanics. It also included an opportunity to work on a tiny neuro-arm device used for brain surgery.
During this time, the Canadian Space Agency reached out with a request for information. After an interview and some discussion, Margo and partner, Gail, flew to Montreal for a briefing.
“We went into this big room, and people came in and gave us the firehose treatment. They just opened the taps, and information came flooding out. After a couple of days, Gail and I looked at each other and said, ‘It sounds like they want us to design training for astronauts.’
The Canadian Space Agency had become internationally renowned for developing the Shuttle Canadarm, a robotic arm used by the Shuttle on space missions to move cargo, assist astronauts and repair satellites. Margo was engaged by the Canadian Space Agency to teach astronauts and mission controllers how to use the Station Canadarm.
“At the time, the only manuals they had were these tiny little half-inch binders with an annotated outline. All the information was in the engineers’ heads.” She recalls. “We had to interview them and get the information and then create computer-based training for astronauts, cosmonauts and mission control. “
It was difficult work, but Margo’s skills as a nurse and educator served her well. She remembers one particularly challenging aspect of the project where her nursing skills kicked in. After spending weeks trying to find patterns in the warning system that communicated problems with the arm back to the astronauts, she finally started seeing patterns. “I said to myself, ‘It’s an arm, and I asked myself, what does an arm have? Anatomy, Physiology, Pathophysiology.'” It clicked, and the pieces started to come together. “Nursing is good for anything.” laughs Margo.
RETIRED AND STILL LEARNING
Retirement didn’t come easy to Margo, “I failed at retirement six times,” she laughs. Just a few years ago, she closed the books on her final paid projects and, not long after that, moved into Sunridge Gardens Seniors Living Community. The walls of her first-floor suite tell a story of one adventure layered upon another. She points out the bronzed cast of an ankle mounted to a plaque given to her as a memorial of when she broke her leg skydiving. Her UofA Nursing diploma hangs beside her PhD diploma kitty-corner to a wall of memorabilia from her career: mission badges from NASA, a Certificate of Completion from the International Space Station, a photo of the Canadarm in action in outer space.
Margo’s career path also taught her about herself: “I discovered I wasn’t a one-trick pony. ” She says, “I’ve got lots of tricks!” And she keeps discovering new tricks. “I get interested in something new, and I try to learn about it. I work on the assumption that everyone on the planet knows more about something than I do. And if they are willing to teach me, I am more than happy to learn.”
Young Margo Mayo, a newly minted nurse, had no idea what lay ahead. So, what advice would Margo offer herself if she could go back and talk to that young trailblazer? “There are all kinds of things you can do out there. Even if no one thinks you’re worthy of promotion, you can pivot; you can do other things. So try. Just try.”
Margo scuba diving at the Red Sea during her deployment with the Canadian Contingent of UN Peacekeepers in Egypt
Maro (L) and friend during her deployment with the Canadian Contingent of UN Peacekeepers in Egypt
Margo’s ‘I Love Me’ Wall featuring commendations and memorabilia from her career
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