Major Julia Atherley-Blight spoke to the Marymount Academy student body on “Challenges for Women in the Military,” today at the Marymount Academy Campus. Major Atherley-Blight was invited by the college to speak to the students in celebration of International Women’s Week, with a focus on alternate careers for women.

Major Julia Blight-Atherley was born in Toronto. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1984 and joined the Canadian Armed Forces that same year. She was later posted to the Canadian Forces Base Trenton where she served as the Construction Engineering Planning Officer and subsequently the Requirements Officer. After serving as Training Systems Staff Officer, she completed her masters degree at Queen’s University and was posted to National Defence Headquarters as an Infrastructure Development Planner.

In 2001 Major Atherlry-Blight was deployed to the Arabian Gulf Region as the Site Activation Engineer leading the construction of Camp MIRAGE, (Operation APOLLO). Later, in 2003 she was deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan as the Theatre Activation Team Engineer for the activation of the Canadian contribution to the International Security Assistance Force mission. She is currently the Deputy Commanding Officer of the Canadian Forces Disaster Assistance Response Team based in Kingston, Ontario.

Joining Major Atherley-Blight at the presentation were Lieutenant Commander Wong from the Canadian Navy, Captain Cheryl Swarbreak from the Canadian Air force and Major General Herb Petras from the Canadian Army.