Doll Honors Canada’s First Black Woman Interventional Cardiologist

Montreal-based Brown Diva Dolls has released a limited-edition doll version of Dr. Alexandra Bastiany, who's Canada's first Black female Interventional Cardiologist.

She told CTV News,

"As a young girl, I didn't have any Black doll [that was a] doctor or an engineer or anything fabulous or out of this world,"

Dr. Bastiany worked with Brown Diva Dolls for a doll created in her likeness. I’m so excited because this is going to be something that little girls and little boys are going to play with and they’re going to see themselves in that doll,”

She graduated from the Université de Montréal medical school in 2011 before completing her fellowship in Interventional Cardiology at the University of Alberta. Today, she works at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.

She told City News Everywhere,

“I knew I liked the heart, the cardiovascular system. It’s always evolving. There are so many things happening. It’s such a simple organ but at the same time it’s so complicated,” “And I knew that I would never be bored. I’m not at all so that was one of the many reasons that pushed me to go into cardiology.”

She is also working with the Canadian Heart Health Alliance to advocate for better cardiovascular care for women.