Alexandria Demers

Hi, I’m Ali, and I work out of San Francisco, Ca for the ILWU, one of the nations largest workers Unions. I am in the healthcare arm, getting our workers access to the healthcare they need. I became interested in healthcare after my own health issues. Being in speech and debate taught me how to take the information I’ve been given and make it into something I can understand. After being diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses at twenty-two I was sure I wouldn’t be able to work a normal job again. Still, I took all the information I had about what was going on with me, my own experience, and decided to share it. Bedridden, I created a patient advocacy page in 2019 and a few of the posts went viral. People all over could empathize with my experience and others found their own answers and encouragement within the community. Since then I have worked with the GHLF and Creaky Joints as a patient advocate, using my experience to help better the experience of others with my same conditions. Still I wanted to do more. I wrote to newspapers and several published my OpEd on predatory healthcare practices. My story was picked up by legislators in my state, Arizona at the time, who used me as a personal witness in the case for AZ House Bill 2420. My testimony helped pass legislation that prevents step therapy and many other predatory healthcare practices in the state of Arizona.

This experience made me realize what I was truly capable of. My words, the ones I wrote with the intention of understanding, made them understand, they made a difference. I went fully into my writing career after that and was a freelance journalist for many years while my health improved and I took time to understand my body, my gifts. I moved out to Las Vegas and became a patient care coordinator and now I live in San Francisco doing my best for the workers. I continue to write, though now for fun and I will be publishing my first novel next year! Aside from this main focus my advocacy has also taken form in working phone banks for a congressional campaign, I was the treasurer of In Her Arm suicide prevention society in college, wrote and ran a successful ad campaign for Oregons Annual Cat Video Festival with proceeds benefitting the Oregan Humane Society and am an active member of the Climate Reality Project class of 2020. All of these are things I care about but my experience in speech and debate taught me how to use that care and my knowledge to create change and foster understanding.