For some women, having children and raising a family marks the end of a career. For Barbara Brink, it was just the beginning.
While on a trip with her husband and two young sons, she asked the front desk clerk at a Toronto hotel what she could do with her boys that day. The clerk suggested the Ontario Science Centre.
"So off we went, and it was a eureka moment watching these boys enjoying it," said Brink. "And at every single science centre and children's centre after that we watched how much they interacted [with the exhibits] and how much fun they were having learning."
Many science exhibits and much lobbying later, Brink was to lead the effort founding and fostering Vancouver's highly successful Science World. It was one of her proudest achievements in a life dedicated to serving the community on several fronts. Brink served as president of Science World's board of governors and its CEO. She also spearheaded a campaign to obtain the Expo Centre to house Science World, secured $12 million of public-sector funding and oversaw a $19 million retrofit.
And that's just one focus in a long list of roles that seem almost impossible to believe one person can serve: past chair of Vancouver General Hospital and the UBC Foundation; founding chair of the West Vancouver Community Centre Services Society; general campaign chair for the United Way campaign in 1995-96 and volunteer trainer for the United Way's Volunteer Leadership Development Program; vice-chair of the Laurier Institution, a think-tank that studies the impact of immigration on Canada's economy and society; and provincially appointed public governor on the former Vancouver Stock Exchange.
She has also received many honours, including the YMCA Women of Distinction Award, the Order of Canada and Order of British Columbia. In addition, she was the only volunteer among 12 women BCBusiness magazine listed as the most powerful women in the province. Ironically, if she hadn't gotten married and pregnant, she might have carried on in her first job out of university: an Air Canada flight attendant.
"My father suggested I try being a flight attendant because in those days you got lots of travel and all those good things. But he was 20 years too late because by the time Air Canada accepted me, it wasn't the exciting job in terms of travel that it had been in the 1940s and 1950s."
In any event, Brink had to abandon the job because most airlines, including Air Canada, insisted that flight attendants be single. It was unlikely, though, that Brink would ever have been a stay-at-home mom. Community service was in her genes – literally. Her parents were perfect role models.
"I found that when they moved to a community they would immediately get involved. And it broke down barriers. They would get involved in Boy Scouts or Girl Guides or the church. They were very much of the view that you get out there and help in your community."
Does she ever find herself overextended?
"Often," Brink said. "Leadership is all about being extended at certain times. The healthy part is knowing that you are extended and knowing that you are going to have to take time for yourself and your career and become a more rounded person."
Despite her many other roles, including being on the board of Junior Achievement of BC and chair to several landmark conferences that attracted Henry Kissinger, Mikhail Gorbachev and other luminaries, she repeatedly returns in an interview to her experience founding Science World.
It was a long process – more than a decade – which she described as "terribly hard." Yet in that process, she said there was a terrific group of people on board. One of her proudest moments is when former Vancouver city manager Fritz Bowers told her Science World was one of the best run non-profits in B.C.
"Basically it is the house that volunteers built." •
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