Alexandra Blight BScN, MN-PHCNP (She/Her)

Alexandra is a nurse practitioner with 15 years of clinical experience. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at McMaster in 2007 and was inducted into the Golden Key Society for grades in the top 15% of the faculty. After graduation she actively sought a wide variety of continuing education and professional development opportunities. She became certified in critical care, worked in a Level 1 Trauma ICU, and pursued 3 college diplomas in cardiology, neurology and neuroscience to further her clinical skill-set as well as obtained her national neuroscience certification from the Canadian Neuroscience Nursing Association. During her RN career she also worked as a clinical instructor for BScN students from Ryerson University and University of Toronto.

Alexandra has a strong interest in global health and health inequities and has worked on numerous community health development projects including organizing and implementing primary health care clinics in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and in the isolated mountainous regions of El Salvador. Alexandra lived and was nurse manager for two years in a remote nursing outpost servicing the health needs of the Kitasoo/Xai-Xais Indigenous community on the northern coast of western Canada near Alaska. She trained at Aurora College in Yellowknife, NWT and at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, B.C. to become certified to work within an advanced Remote Certified scope of practice in the north. Alexandra also attained a diploma in Tropical Medicine at the prestigious Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom and put this education to use working as a nurse educator in northern India alongside the Dalai Lama’s personal physician in Delek Hospital, a charity facility designated for care of Tibetan refugees. Upon returning to Canada, she worked with the Inner City Health Associates conducting research and providing community education sessions on opioid overdose response within the shelter system in Toronto. She was involved in the advocacy work to support the legalization of safe injection sites in the GTA.

In 2017 Alexandra completed the Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner program with a double Masters in Nursing and Global Health at the University of Toronto, again graduating with Honours. She worked as a primary care provider at Anishnawbe Health, a community health centre providing care for an inner city population of First Nations, Indigenous and Métis people in Toronto, many of whom were struggling with the devastating negative health impacts of colonialism and the intergenerational trauma of systemic and ongoing racism. During this time, she received certifications from CAMH in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT) as well as crisis response. She then went on to Planned Parenthood Toronto, working within a reproductive justice lens providing sexual health services to youth, with a large roster of new refugees and LGBQT2S+ patients. This included care such as contraceptive and pregnancy options counselling, prenatal care, STI treatment, and gender-affirming care in the form of hormone therapy.

Her passion for reproductive justice and empowering her patients with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health options led her into the world of fertility. She believes strongly in patient-centred care and helping her patients create and achieve their own goals around fertility and family planning brings her great joy.