PolicyLab

Alejandra Barreto (she/her/ella) serves as a research data analyst at PolicyLab and the Division of Neonatology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Alejandra works with Dr. Diana Montoya-Williams studying the drivers of racial and ethnic disparities in infant health outcomes such as preterm birth, low birth weight and infant mortality.

As a prior participant in the University of Pennsylvania's Summer Undergraduate Mentored Research Program (SUMR), Alejandra worked alongside Drs. Emily Gregory and Diana Montoya-Williams studying preconception and interconception health among minority women. Her responsibilities included conducting descriptive and analytical data work using birth certificate data. Additionally, she coded qualitative interviews on women's health care access. Moreover, she possesses an interest in immigration policy and its implications on the perinatal and infant health outcomes of Hispanic women. Her master's thesis focused on exploring the associations of maternal nativity, ethnicity, and race with preterm birth overall and by gestational age categories.

Alejandra recently graduated from the University of Southern California with a Master in Public Health and a bachelor’s degree in health promotion and disease prevention and a minor in Spanish. Her overarching goal is become a physician scientist who advocates for accessible and equitable health care for underserved communities.