Born in Gonnaives, Haiti, Margarett Alexandre arrived in the United States at the age of 10, after a five-year detour to Jamaica.
Holding a Masters Degree in Nursing with a concentration in administration and education from Adelphi University, Ms. Alexandre is an assistant professor in the Department of Nursing at CUNY York College.
With more than 30 years as an educator, Prof. Alexandre teaches new students in York’s four-year nursing program, those in a registered nurse to bachelor of science program, and in the CUNY dual degree Bridge program. Ms. Alexandre also teaches medical aspects of nursing, lab skills and policy.
“I see myself as the intersection of theory and clinical practice; I am there to guide students into the real world,” she says of her role.
She adds, “Also, on ‘policy to action day,’ we go to Albany to lobby.”
Additionally, the professor is also a CUNY nursing doctoral student and a Jonas scholar. Her Ph.D. dissertation research focuses on traumatic amputation as a result of the Haitian earthquake.
Professor Alexandre has also been a member of the former CUNY Chancellor’s Haiti Initiative.
She made an assessment trip before teaching a series of nursing classes in Haiti, asking students and faculty: what do you need? “This was a joint project.”
For several summers at the public nursing school in Gonnaives, she taught intensive classes in ethics, nursing, diabetes, hypertension and trauma care as well as a course in teaching styles to faculty.
Last year, she taught a two-week intensive license topic review for 54 senior nursing students in Haiti.
Professor Alexandre most recently served as a member of the new CUNY Haitian Studies Institute executive planning team at Brooklyn College. “I learned a lot by integrating with other academic fields,” she says.
