Dr. Blackledge attended medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and completed General Surgery Residency at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. She was elected as the Administrative Chief Resident during her last year of training. She completed a fellowship in Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is Board Certified by the American Board of Surgery, and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
Her work has been presented at the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, and American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.