Tyler is a proud member of the nursing profession. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Lakehead University (Canada), initially working in critical care and cardiac intensive care. He then pursued a Master of Nursing degree from the University of Toronto (Canada) and transitioned into the nurse practitioner role, where he now specializes in pulmonology. His role includes the care of hospitalized patients (mainly patients with respiratory issues and those leaving the intensive care unit) and ambulatory patients with a variety of issues like asthma, COPD, chronic cough and interstitial lung disease. More recently Tyler has been following patients with PASC (long Covid) as well.

During the course of his career, Tyler has become passionate about combating health related misinformation, mainly related to vaccines and more recently COVID-19 and has built up a large Tik Tok following. He was also involved in the COVID-19 vaccination roll out at his organization where he was able to vaccinate hundreds of patients. Tyler’s passion extends to the clinical setting where he loves taking opportunities to educate patients – whether it be about their disease process, health promotion/prevention, or even debunking myths about vaccines (specifically influenza and COVID-19 vaccines!).

Outside of work, Tyler is an avid traveler (when Covid permits). He will find any excuse to get on a plane and visit somewhere (whether it’s Las Vegas or Europe). He also loves food, food and more food (and he will try anything once!). Of course with food comes the need for staying fit, and prior to the pandemic he was an Orangetheory Fitness fanatic! Recently, however he has fallen in love with his Peloton which has become a part of his regular routine. He also loves dogs and his current pride and joy is his pug, Titus. He is also a proud Canadian, now transplanted into the USA.

Dr. Anna Blakney is Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia and a former research fellow at Imperial College London.  The Blakney Lab is a multidisciplinary group of engineers, immunologists and molecular biologists investigating the interactions between RNA, biomaterials and the immune system to prevent and treat disease.  During the pandemic she focused on vaccine formulation and testing to determine whether it was safe and immunogenic. 

On top of her long hours in the lab, Blakney wants to help spread accurate info about the vaccine. “I think, as academics, we have a duty to educate not only other students and scientists but the public as well,” she says. “I think it’s largely changed now but, at the beginning of the pandemic, the lag time between what was going on with the science and the public knowing about it was really long. So I made it my mission to get the word out there.