Alexandra J. Reichert is a medical anthropologist and human rights researcher specializing in Indigenous women’s health, environmental justice, and state policy in the Ecuadorian Amazon. She is currently completing her Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University, where her dissertation, Birth, Violence, and Resistance in the Ecuadorian Amazon, explores Indigenous Kichwa women’s experiences of obstetric violence and their strategies of resilience and legal advocacy. A former Fulbright and Boren Fellow, she has over eight years of ethnographic and policy research experience with Indigenous women’s organizations, midwives, and health authorities in Ecuador. She previously served as Deputy Director of the Aspen Institute Health Strategy Group in Washington, D.C., co-authoring national policy reports on maternal mortality and health equity. Her research and publications bridge anthropology, law, and policy. Her areas of specialization include Indigenous rights, racial discrimination, gender-based and obstetric violence, sexual assault, state persecution, intercultural health systems, environmental and reproductive justice, and human rights documentation.
Healthcare Access/Health Systems Capacity
Government/State Actor Persecution
LGBTQ
HIV/AIDS
Gender-Based Violence/Domestic Violence /GBV
Mental Illness
Political Persecution
Honor-Based Violence
Sexual Abuse/Assault
Witchcraft Accusations & Ritual Violence
Tribal Discrimination Or Persecution
Specialized Medical Services
Citizenship, Statelessness & Lack of Nationality Documentation
Coercive Population Control
Climate-Related Issues
Ethnic Discrimination Or Persecution
Land Tenure Disputes
Journalist Persecution
Peer Reviewed Publications
Reichert, Alexandra J. “They study for six years. We study for generations”: Renegotiating birth, power, and interculturalidad in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 29(2): 169-178. February 6, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1111/jlca.12716
Reichert, Alexandra J. and Ofelia Salazar Shiguango. 2024. Hacia Una Interculturalidad Resurgente: Generando Hermandad, Grietas Decoloniales y Sanación En La Amazonía Ecuatoriana. Mundos Plurales - Revista Latinoamericana De Políticas Y Acción Pública 11 (2):158-79. November 27, 2024. https://doi.org/10.17141/mundosplurales.2.2024.6169.
Yamanis TJ, Rao S, Reichert Alexandra J., Haws R, Morrissey T, Suarez A. Dignity of Work and at Work: The Relationship between Workplace Dignity and Health among Latino Immigrants during the COVID-19 Pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2024; 21(7):855. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21070855
Katz, R., Toole, K., Robertson, H….Reichert, Alexandra J. et al. Open data for COVID-19 policy analysis and mapping. Scientific Data 10:491. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02398-3
Policy Publications
Reichert, Alexandra J. Toward Intercultural Health Care in Ecuador: A Roadmap For Equitable Reform. Health Affairs Forefront. April 10, 2020. DOI: 10.1377/forefront.20200406.329120
Protecting Health Data Privacy and Improving Patient Care. A Report of the Aspen Institute Health Strategy Group. Edited by Alan R. Weil, Alexandra J. Reichert, and Karyn Feiden. 2023. https://healthmedicineandsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/AHSG-He…
Fischer, Edward F., Tatiana Paz Lemus, Alexandra J. Reichert, Mikayla Alsopp, T.S. Harvey. 2022. Reframing Childhood Obesity: Cultural Insights on Nutrition, Weight, and Food Systems. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt Cultural Contexts of Health Initiative; World Health Organization.
Reducing the Health Harms of Incarceration. A Report of the Aspen Institute Health Strategy Group. Edited by Alan Weil and Alexandra J. Reichert. April 8, 2022. https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Incarceration…
Reversing the Maternal Mortality Crisis in the US. A Report of the Aspen Institute Health Strategy Group. Edited by Alan Weil and Alexandra J. Reichert. February 2021. https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Maternal-Mora…
Broader Indigenous Amazonian groups
Broader Indigenous groups in Ecuador, including the Andes
Afro-Ecuadorian women, particularly on the coast of Ecuador
Women’s and feminist movements in Ecuador
Community-based environmental and anti-mining movements in Ecuador
Indigenous health organizations
State health institutions and intercultural health policy frameworks
Rural populations
Biomedical practitioners in Ecuador
35 Muddy Dog Run
Essex Junction, VT 05452 USA