In addition to teaching the Graduate School of Professional Psychology's Public Policy and Advocacy course, Dr. Alexander is engaged in public policy reform efforts at the local and national level.

Dr. Alexander's TEDxMileHigh December 2018 talk called for the need for consent education and comprehensive sex education in schools. In early 2019, Colorado HB 19-1032 (Comprehensive Human Sexuality Education) was introduced which would require consent education, LGBTQ+ inclusive education, and developmentally appropriate education in Colorado schools that provide sex education. Dr. Alexander testified in support of the bill in front of the Colorado House Committee on Public Health Care & Insurance, and the bill was signed into law in Summer 2019. Find out more at the Real Sex Ed Colorado website. 

COVID-19, the latest infectious coronavirus disease, was discovered in Wuhan, China in 2019 and quickly reached pandemic levels. Throughout the United States, various jurisdictions have placed mandates in order to increase adherence to social distancing. As we all learn more about COVID-19, it appears that marginalized individuals and communities are most vulnerable. Dr. Alexander is working to highlight those disparities and advocate to systemic change to address barriers to adequate and responsive health care healthare. 

Publications:

Alexander, A. A., Allo, H., & Klukoff, H. (2020). Sick and shut in: Incarceration during a public health crisis. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 60(5), 647-656. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167820930556

Op-Ed:

If Black lives matter to him, Polis needs to reduce prison population (The Denver Post)

Here are some of her media appearances concering COVID-19:

• ‘It was just chaos’: Former Sterling prison guard says COVID protocols were not enforced (Colorado Newsline)
• Advocates push state to resume early prison releases due to coronavirus (Colorado Newsline)
• Who’s Wearing a Mask? Women, Democrats and City Dwellers (The New York Times)
• Minisode: COVID-19, Prisons and Smart Decarceration (DU RadioEd)
• Mid-April in America is an unforgiving time, and now this (The Associated Press)
• America’s COVID-19 recovery may not be similar to what is happening in China (Denver ABC7)
• Stay-at-home orders could serve as an important test for the future of remote working (Denver ABC7)

In collaboration with ONE Colorado and local LGBTQ+ advocates, Dr. Alexander testified several in support of municipal resolutions and state legislation to ban conversion therapy with minors. The Denver City Council passed an ordinance banning the practice in the Denver city limits (citing Dr. Alexander in its proclamation) and Colorado HB 19-1129 Prohibit Conversion Therapy for A Minor was signed into law in Summer 2019.

For articles Dr. Alexander published calling for a ban, see below:

Legislature must ban use of 'conversion therapy' on our youth (Colorado Politics)

Conversion "Therapy": Current Policy and Ethical Issues (Psychotherapy Bulletin)