Dr. Alice Girard Award

Martha Paynter is a staff nurse at the IWK Health Centre Family Newborn Care Unit and the Nova Scotia Women’s Choices (Abortion) Clinic. She is a PhD Candidate in Nursing at Dalhousie University. In 2012, she founded Women’s Wellness Within (WWW), a registered non-profit organization that provides support, education and advocacy with criminalized women who are pregnant or parenting young children in Nova Scotia. For nearly ten years, she chaired the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) Halifax branch. She became a nurse to advance practice, policy and research that addresses social (in)justice and protects reproductive rights.