In the news/media mentions

Wisconsin lawmakers propose new task force to address missing and murdered Black women and girls

WKOW (October 16, 2023)

"Many of the disparities that we're seeing occur amongst women that are between 17 and 24. Those are daughters, they are people who deserve to be looked for, but because they've reached what's legal adulthood, then there's a delay from law enforcement," said Dr. Kamila A. Alexander, Associate Professor of Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Read more...

An epidemic of missing Black women has been ignored for too long

The Hill (October 10, 2023)

No family — regardless of where they live or what they look like — should ever have to experience the dread of a loved one’s disappearance or the worst-case scenario of never seeing that person again. But the data show that Black families experience a disproportionate share of these enormously heavy burdens. Black people represent 13 percent of the U.S. population yet account for more than 33 percent of the nearly 550,000 people who were reported missing in our country in 2022. It is a similar story for Black women: only 7 percent of the population yet nearly 20 percent of all missing persons cases. Read more...

From Erasure to Empowerment

Johns Hopkins Nursing Magazine, On The Pulse, Episode #31 (October 16, 2023)

In today’s show, we’re talking about missing and murdered black women and girls with Dr. Kamila Alexander, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, and Dr. Tiara Willie, assistant professor at the School of Public Health and Bloomberg American Health Initiative.

Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls

Public Health On Call Podcast, Episode #668 (September 29, 2023)

An estimated 97,000 Black women and girls have gone missing or been murdered in the US in the last year—which represents about 40% of all missing persons. These women and girls are often viewed as criminals or runaways and not victims or survivors, which can hamstring efforts to find and support them. Dr. Tiara Willie, gender-based violence researcher, and Dr. Kamila Alexander, a nurse and trauma researcher, talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the first organized effort to focus long overdue attention on this problem, which was recently launched in Minnesota, and its implications for the nation. Read more...

HIV/AIDS epidemic hits Long Island Black and Latino communities hardest

Newsday (September 1, 2023)

“There are two different epidemics,” one for Black and Latino people, one for other Americans, said Kamila Alexander, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing in Baltimore who studies HIV disparities. Read more...

Deaths in pregnant or recently pregnant women have risen, especially for unrelated causes such as drug poisoning and homicide

CNN health (January 27, 2023)

“We’ve seen study after study show how discrimination and structural racism are at play at multiple levels within our health care system as well as communities at large, preventing women from accessing quality care that is respectful,” said Dr. Kamila Alexander, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Read more...

Black women make up majority of new HIV cases among women. But they aren't getting care

USA Today (November 21, 2022)

…but “the majority of these 10 years have really been focused on getting messages to gay men, and therefore PrEP became a biomedical HIV prevention, an intervention, that was not necessarily geared toward the lives of Black women,” said Kamila Alexander, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing who studies HIV disparities. “That opportunity was completely missed,” she said. “If you don't feel like it's for you, then you're not going to pay any attention to it.” Read more...

Emergency department visits for sexual assault increase 15-fold amid #MeToo movement and broader awareness, researchers say

CNN health (October 20, 2022)

“Kamila Alexander, a researcher focused on sexual health at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, and Dr. Elizabeth Miller, a pediatrician with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who has researched gender-based violence, call sexual violence a public health emergency.” Read more...

With homicide a leading cause of maternal death, doctors urged to screen pregnant women for domestic violence

CNN health (October 20, 2022)

Data on maternal deaths related to intimate partner violence is often lacking – but screening can help, said Kamila Alexander, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Read more...

Experts: Pregnant people could face greater risk of domestic violence after abortion bans

USA Today (July 14, 2022)

Here’s what you need to know about reproductive coercion.
Prism Reports (March 29, 2022)

“RC experiences across the spectrum of gender such as trans men and non-binary people have not been studied to my knowledge and is a very big gap in our knowledge of how to support those individuals,” said Dr. Kamila A. Alexander, a nurse clinician and researcher who focuses on promoting healthy relationships among adolescents and young adults. Read more...

It took me 12 years to realize I’d been raped. ‘Promising Young Woman’ triggered that breakthrough.
The Lily (April 23, 2021)

Kamila Alexander, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins nursing school who researches sexual health outcome disparities, says people will respond to the trauma differently, and on different timelines. “A person will respond by going through a particular process that makes them feel safe or helps them to understand what happened,” Alexander says. “That understanding can take hours; it can take days, weeks. It can also take years.” Read more...

“Tangled” Study is overcoming mistrust of research among Black women to reform our approach to systemic intimate partner violence.
Johns Hopkins Nursing Magazine, On The Pulse (February 24, 2021)

…these tensions are especially challenging for Kamila Alexander, PhD, MSN/MPH, RN, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing to navigate. She leads the TANGLED Research Study for Young Women, and happens to be a Black woman scientist. The study connects with women experiencing intimate partner violence to explore how their social networks might influence their health behaviors, including preventive strategies for safety that promote general well-being. And yet…

“I often ask myself if there are any positive effects of conducting research with Black women, especially those who face vulnerabilities and danger in their intimate relationships.” she says. Read more...

Many Title X clinics in southern US refer young women elsewhere for PrEP
Medscape Reuters Health Information (November 30, 2020).  

A democracy for all.
Johns Hopkins HUB. Democracy Project (November 19, 2020)

In early October, to celebrate our 6-year-old son's birthday, we took him and his 4-year-old brother to a dairy farm about an hour outside Baltimore. We ate ice cream, played in the nearby cornfields, and enjoyed the fresh air, temporarily escaping the isolation associated with the coronavirus pandemic. During our trip back to the city, we passed several racist political campaign signs disparaging Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Read more…

We need culturally appropriate resources when Latinas experience intimate partner violence – The “Invisible Crisis”
Johns Hopkins Nursing Magazine, On The Pulse (November 18, 2020)

When Dr. Kamila A. Alexander began working as a Spanish-proficient public health nurse in Baltimore, Maryland in 2001, she found that resources for Latinas* were few and far between. At that time, there were approximately 10,000 Latinxs living in Baltimore City. She still recalls one patient in particular: a Latina, monolingual mother of two who tested positive for HIV after experiencing sexual violence. Read more…

Henrietta Lacks: Rendering the invisible, visible.
Johns Hopkins Nursing Magazine, On The Pulse (October 09, 2018).

When I received the invitation to come talk to the Henrietta Lacks Legacy Group, I was busily finishing up teaching my summer courses and preparing for my family’s annual summer vacation to the beach. I told my father, George Alexander, about this occasion and he perked up, telling me that he had been shocked to learn of the origins of HeLa cells. This was shocking because he had supported our family for the majority of his professional life selling scientific products. Read more...