Rubina Dosani’s North Star is her Islamic faith, which guides her to help others whenever she can. In following her passion, she has helped people in Cincinnati, throughout the country, and even around the world. She helped establish the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati (I.C.G.C.) and was the first leader of the center’s mental health program, normalizing discussions about mental health and developing resources for the community.

This passion for helping drove her to choose a career at Johnson and Johnson (J&J), where she works with teams developing medical devices to ensure they meet the necessary regulations to be put on the market. Rubina and her husband also assist students in need with resources to graduate high school and attend college through their nonprofit, the Education Project. She encourages others to find their North Star, to have the courage to take on challenges, and to use their talents and blessings to help others.

Interview by Tracy Van Wagner. Photography by Angie Lipscomb.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I'm Rubina. I moved to Cincinnati when I got married, more than 30 years ago. It was pretty much an arranged marriage. My husband was a student at the University of Kentucky, finishing his master’s in engineering; I had just finished my bachelor’s in microbiology in Bombay. He came back home to Bombay [now Mumbai] and we were introduced through friends of our parents. We met once with both families present; then, we decided to get married. Within three weeks, we met, my parents put together a wedding, and we got married. He returned, applied for a visa for me, defended his thesis, and then found a job in Cincinnati – our adopted home. I've now lived longer in Cincinnati than I lived in Bombay!

I went to U.C. to get a master’s in environmental science. I was pregnant while finishing up my degree and I defended my thesis after my daughter was born. I started looking for a job, but I was really half-hearted about it. At that point, we had been here for only a few years. We didn't know many people and we didn't know the system. I was like, “I really don’t want my child to be raised by somebody I don't know.” We both decided I would stay home and raise our three daughters. It's a lot of work having children. I loved that period of my life, though!

I started working when my youngest went to kindergarten. One of my friends – who was also from Bombay – kept pushing me, like, “You got your master’s. You knew what you wanted.” She was the main force getting me into the workforce; at that point, it was like, “I'm really comfortable at home.” But I knew at the back of my mind I wanted to do something more than what I was doing.

Then I went into career mode. It was a little bit harder having children, and then trying to establish myself at work. I started at Cincinnati Children's Hospital as a research coordinator. Within a short period of time, I was loving it! I was there for about 12 years. Then I moved to Ethicon, which is part of Johnson and Johnson. I've been there for six years.

What do you do at Johnson and Johnson?

At J&J, I'm a regulatory affairs manager for Ethicon, a company that produces medical devices. My role as part of the new product development team is to provide guidance on the standards and regulations for any particular product in development so that it’s safe and effective for its intended use. Once product development is complete, it’s my job to make a submission to the regulatory authority in the U.S. (the F.D.A.) to obtain approval to place the product in the U.S. market. Then I work with specialists in different countries to obtain approvals around the world where the product is to be commercialized. So, for example, if I'm working with China or Japan, we have people who are more conversant with their regulations to help us.

With my master’s in environmental science, I never thought of myself as a “regulatory person.” But I enjoy it a lot! There's a lot of science involved, and that’s still my first love. It's also practical. Device development is long, but not as long as drug development, which can take 20 years. We can get devices out faster, unless you're coming up with a whole new device that’s never been seen before. A lot of devices we’ve brought to the market are similar to other devices out there, so they don't take as long to develop. You can see your project start and finish in approximately three to four years.

What drives me is that it helps somebody. You're doing something that is going to make somebody's life better. You want to do your job really well all the time, because, in the end, you know it's going to be used to help somebody. You want patients who need the device to get the best device they can. That’s the driving force that brings meaning to my work.

Helping others is a big part of your life outside of work, too. Tell us about your volunteer work in the Islamic community.

A large part of our lives is being part of the expatriate community. [During our first years here], we didn't yet have the Islamic Center established; there was a mosque downtown where we went for services and prayers, but we wanted to bring something to [the east] side of town, closer to where most people in the community lived.

We started the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati in 1995. I volunteered at the I.C.G.C. wherever they needed me. So, if we needed to fundraise, if we needed to have dinners, I was part of that. At that point, we were just trying to come together and establish ourselves as a community, so there were a lot of gatherings for us to get to know each other.

In 2012 or 2013, the board decided we needed to have a more formal social service group. We established the five pillars: family sustainability, mental health, health, social support, and domestic violence. One of my friends said, “We need somebody to lead the mental health pillar,” and I agreed to lead it. That was an exciting journey. I’m not trained in that and I don’t have a background, but I was the person to start it. And we started off with nothing, establishing what we wanted to do, where we wanted to go, and how we wanted to do it. At that point, we called ourselves the “counseling pillar” because we were afraid people would shy away from it if we called it the “mental health pillar.” There was so much stigma, and people didn't really want to talk about mental health. Our focus was to make it more acceptable. Yes, everybody does have mental health issues at one point or another. It’s just like your physical health: You might have a headache one day and you might be anxious another day. We need to make it normal and be able to support each other.

We called ourselves the “counseling pillar” because we were afraid people would shy away from it if we called it the “mental health pillar.” There was so much stigma, and people didn't really want to talk about mental health. Our focus was to make it more acceptable.

We did some surveys in the community to see what people wanted to talk about. We brought in experts and trainers to first help the volunteers, and then the larger community. Leading that was one of my highlights at the I.C.G.C.; I did that until 2019. Now, we’re where we wanted to be. Nobody flinches when we say, “We're going to have a talk about mental health.” It's become part of the normal conversation. I'm glad we had that foresight, so we can meet our community’s needs much more easily.

I was also part of their other activities in the region. We volunteer wherever we’re needed. The last few years, we have gone to some churches to help prepare breakfast. We have soup kitchens; we have a food bank at the I.C.G.C. I help with. There's a lot of activities going on, so it's easy to find something to do that you enjoy. I had started getting more involved with outreach programs, but then COVID started. We had to shut down all our tours and talks and those activities on-site.

That's amazing that you were a big part of building the mental health program. How did you go about becoming a community leader for this topic you didn’t know much about?

This is one thing I always tell my children: Raise your hand if you want to do something. You may not know what you're going to do but take that first step and you'll often find your path will work out. Sometimes, you just have to be like, “I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm ready to learn and I'm ready to give it my best.” That's also how you build leadership skills. If you want to be a leader, you have to be ready to charge a path, find the courage to go a little bit into the unknown, and be in places where you’re kind of uncomfortable or unfamiliar – go in and find out. It’s about being willing to do the hard work.

Understanding what is important to you can help you find your path. Knowing that my faith is important to me, I was connected with the Islamic Center. My faith dictates that I help people however I can. So, those things are part of what makes the “whole of you.” You have to find your North Star. If you know your North Star, then all of the things along the way can help you find that right path. It's easier to make the decisions of where you want to go if you know where you're going.

Can you tell us about the nonprofit you and your husband run?

We have so much need in our communities. A lot of times, kids get lost in the shuffle just because they didn't get that one extra push they needed. The Education Project’s goal is to help with resources children need to graduate high school and go on to college. We can provide them with things like covering the fees to sign up for an S.A.T. class or buying shoes to play soccer. You can go to school and there's no fees, but there's still a lot of costs: uniforms or supplies. The other day, a kid in 11th grade needed a calculator, which is really expensive – over a hundred dollars. It’s really hard for a family trying to make do. It's almost like the whole grocery budget for the week to buy the calculator.

We ask for school counselors and teachers to provide us with nominations; we have certain criteria they need to meet to enroll in the Education Project. Then, we help them with whatever is needed throughout those high school years. We just ask that they are also committed to trying to achieve it and that they maintain good grades. We've already had some kids go through the program. This last year has been a little difficult because schools are busy trying to keep their own programs alive, but we are hoping to be able to start again by the end of this year.

Sometimes, you just have to be like, “I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm ready to learn and I'm ready to give it my best.”

It's been an interesting journey starting a nonprofit. It’s a lot of not really knowing what you're doing. My husband, an engineer by profession, is good at figuring things out. We founded the nonprofit, and then we had to get a board together to oversee it. One of my daughters was our first volunteer. She was the person who got supplies or went to Walmart with a student to buy a uniform or talked to them about filling out the college forms. She was the go-to person. She's moved on, so I'm the go-to person right now. We're hoping, once we start back up, we’ll be able to get more volunteers.

What kind of volunteers are you looking for?

We want to have a couple different volunteer types. One would be somebody who can work one-on-one, kind of like a buddy, to see how things are going, where they are, and what their needs are. Another would be a lead for operations to keep things going, manage contacts, and get enrollments.

We had some kids who are recent immigrants, so they needed a lot more help because they were new to the system. So, we've had a couple volunteers from the community tutor them one-on-one. It's hard to catch up; the teachers try a lot, but still, there's so much more that they need help with. Those two volunteers have been great working with the kids. If we have more kids in the program, we would want to have more one-on-one tutoring.

You touched on helping high schoolers pursue college degrees earlier.

Coming from India, getting an education is in the details of the culture. You have to study. You have to go to college. That's how people grow up. You have to make sure you get through high school and do well, so you have lots of paths open to you when you’re thinking about college. Going to college was never a choice; it’s an expectation.

Going to college does help a lot. Even if you decided right now, “I'm not going to be doing anything with this degree,” get it anyway because it helps you to grow your mind and see the world in a different way. Then, eventually, you probably are going to use it — and you're probably going to be helping somebody in your life. That belief is where my husband and I were going with the Education Project.

I think a lot of problems we see right now are because people are not discerning enough when looking at facts, understanding the news, understanding how you form your opinions, and learning about things. You learn these basics by getting a college degree. It’s going to make you a better person, whether you use it or not.

You mentioned COVID-19 affecting your work with the I.C.G.C. and the Education Project. Have you been working from home for J&J during the pandemic?

I've been lucky that I've been able to work from home the entire time. J&J has been amazing at supporting employees, making any kind of adjustments as needed. They are taking as little risk as possible. We have amazing leadership from the top, so it's been very good to be part of that organization this last year.

We have what we call “Employee Resource Groups” with workshops and discussions to support employees, including one called “Mental Health Diplomats” that I’m co-leading with another coworker for 2021. It's a little bit different now that we're all online and working from home, but we still can do a lot to support each other. We have a lot of resources already available; we want to make sure everybody knows where the resources are, what they are, and then provide training if needed.

That's great that you were able to find a job where you can express your passion for helping people.

Yeah, that is something I am truly grateful for. I love being able to help people. I love to feel like I can make a difference in people's lives. That's my thing in life: I have talents and resources – it's something that God gave me. The expectation from God is that I take those and use them to help where it's needed. So, I enjoy doing that. If I can help somebody, I'm going to do that.

What drives me is that it helps somebody. You're doing something that is going to make somebody's life better.

Another part of the reason I do all of these things is because I want to be someone my children can look up to. We all, as mothers, want that. You want to be a good role model; you want to influence the children by what you do, not just telling them what to do. I'm happy with how my daughters have turned out. I'm glad they were able to take those learnings into their lives.

My older daughter works for The New York Times. She definitely loves being part of that culture of being able to help. She can represent the point of view of a person who didn’t grow up with power and all of the privileges. My second daughter is a nurse. She wanted to directly have an impact on people's lives, and I think that's a great way to do that. And my youngest daughter is still finding her way. Right now, she’s working for a law firm in Chicago – I think it’s a nonprofit. They offer legal help to students and parents in need within Chicago Public Schools. She's also starting to apply to law school, so hopefully she'll do something helpful with her career as well.

Tell us about women who have been influential in your life.

My sisters have been a great influence in my life; they have always been there for me. And there have been other women I’ve met along the way in life. At the Islamic Center, there have been a lot of strong women I look up to. Samira Jaweed is one of them; she's great at what she does. And Shakila Ahmad, who was the chair at one time. I’ve looked up to her to see how she's done things.

My mom, Aisha, has been among the main influences in my life. She had four daughters. I didn't really understand how well she brought us up until I was older. You may know this about India, but it's a very male-dominated society. If you have a son, you are ecstatic – but not if you have a daughter. I didn't know about that part of life until I grew up, because my mom never had that view. She always encouraged us to do as well as we could and to make sure we got good grades. There was no expectation that we would just get married and not have anything else in our lives. I was always interested in science, and she pushed me to go for that, always encouraging me. She was never one to back down from anything. She showed us that you can be a woman and you can still be strong. You have to make sure your opinions are respected and you respect other people. You are in charge of your life. She lived like that.

She was never one to back down from anything. She showed us that you can be a woman and you can still be strong.

I feel like my confidence, my energy for doing good for others, my love and passion of this work comes from her. She was always helping everyone. She's 75 years old, and she's still helping. This is some years ago – she's had to back off a little bit – but she had a group of women she would support, having gatherings at home, or if somebody was getting married and their daughter needed something, she would go out and fundraise. She likes to take care of people and that is one of the reasons why I wanted to stay home with my children. I remember growing up having my mom’s presence in the house. I could always rely on her for advice or that afternoon snack when I came home from school, and things like that. If you needed to study for an exam tomorrow, then she was staying up with you to make sure you didn't fall asleep. She was there to support you. It’s not easy to do that with four kids.

My mom also influenced my love of cooking, which I passed on to my children. We all enjoy being in the kitchen together. They come up with their own recipes and they’ve learned our traditional recipes. With COVID, we can get online and be in our kitchens doing things together, living in different cities. My mom never stops learning. Imagine all these changes with technology; it’s not easy to just catch up with everything. Yet, she was messaging us before we even had cellphones! We had those landline phones where you could message through the landline, and she would message with that. She's an amazing person. I'm glad she's my mom!

Do you know an awesome woman of Cincy? Nominate her here! New features launch on Mondays.

Women of Cincy is a certified 501(c)3. This belongs to you. Consider supporting future stories with a donation.

Rubina Dosani: ‘Find your North Star.’