Alejandra Fernandez is an Assistant Professor in the UT Southwestern Peter O’Donnell School of Public Health. Her research focuses on adolescent health and development, emphasizing how sociocultural, familial, and environmental contexts shape early risk-related behaviors. She studies risk and protective factors using large, diverse longitudinal datasets, including population-based cohorts, to examine multilevel influences on adolescent outcomes. Building on these insights, she aims to change behaviors through the development, implementation, and evaluation of family-focused interventions that strengthen family systems. Across her work, she integrates rigorous observational analyses with intervention development to better understand what supports healthy development and well-being. As a 2026 MAPCI Fellow, Fernandez joins a community advancing methods for the design and evaluation of interventions in cancer prevention and control.