Tylenol PhD Award

I am Josephine Francis Xavier, currently in my second year Ph.D. in nursing at York University and a lactation Consultant at Trillium Health Partners, Toronto, Canada. Teaching has always been my passion, inspired by my dad and aunt, who were professional teachers. At first, I wanted to be a physics professor. Because nursing contributed to financial stability and job security, I started my nursing career to support my siblings. Also, due to my birth history as a preemie baby (27 weeks gestation), I was deeply drawn to maternal and child health during my undergraduate program. In my early infant years, my grandparents’ friend (a nurse) was crucial to my survival with timely and appropriate care. Over the past 23 years, this story has built my passion for nursing as a perinatal nurse, lactation consultant, educator, and researcher. Currently, I am a nurse in various positions in Canada. I am researching fathering and fatherhood among first-time fathers in ethnically diverse, new immigrant families to carry on my family’s legacy as a nurse educator and honour the nurse who changed my life. Being a nurse in a social culture where nursing is a less preferred profession, and having my siblings emerge as nurse leaders, with around 20-25 nurses following my path in the past two decades, has been an accomplishment for my role modelling as a nurse. My passion and future goals are to provide a platform for unheard voices to influence social justice advocacy among nurses and immigrant perinatal families through practice, education, and research.