Alex has spent more than 10 years working at the crossroads of reentry systems and lived experience with serious mental illness. He works as a Behavioral Health Program Manager managing a portfolio of programs, initiatives and contracts that improve access to mental and behavioral health care treatment and recovery supports. Additionally, Alex is also the Co-Founder of the Doctoral and Postdoc Health Equity and Policy Scholars Support Network, a community of Doctoral-level Scholars focused on advancing health equity through lived experience and innovative policy development.
Alex is currently a third-year Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) student at Tulane University Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and a Fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholars program at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research focuses on lived experience with mental illness and substance use to improve state and federal mental and behavioral healthcare policies, helping reduce disparities and create better outcomes for people seeking care.
Alex has brought his lived experience leadership perspective to mental health and patient advocacy work at local, state, national, and global levels. He has been honored to have worked with organizations such as Valley Cities Behavioral Health Care, King County, WA, all levels of NAMI (local, state, and national), Camden Coalition, American Public Health Association, Foundations for the National Institutes of Health, and Global Mental Health Peer Network. He believe that meaningful policy change happens when it is rooted in equity, dignity, and guided by individuals with lived or living experience.
