Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy Announces Winner of New Advocacy Achievement Award in Partnership with APHA

Apryl Alexander, PsyD, has been named the winner of the 2025 Sommer Klag Advocacy Achievement Award. Dr. Alexander, the Metrolina Distinguished Professor of Health and Policy in the Department of Health Management and Policy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, (UNC), earned the $30,000 award for her advocacy work on behalf of at-promise and systems-involved youth. The Advocacy Achievement Award is made possible through a gift from Helaine Lerner and her late husband, Sid Lerner. This award, administered by the Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in partnership with the American Public Health Association (APHA), intended to recognize the recipient’s contribution to the field of public health advocacy and support their continued advocacy efforts. 

Across the country, at-promise and systems-involved youth (those navigating trauma, family instability, and contact with the justice system) often face policies that criminalize rather than support them. Dr. Alexander’s work began with her early clinical work treating victims of childhood trauma, which revealed how deeply systems could fail the youth they were meant to protect.

During her tenure at Auburn University, she worked directly with adolescents in the juvenile justice system and witnessed the inequities that often defined their experiences, including displacement from schools, racial disparities, and lifelong consequences tied to adolescent mistakes. Those observations became the catalyst for her shift toward policy engagement, leading her to focus her research and advocacy on advancing trauma-informed, equitable reforms for at-promise youth. 

Through legislative advocacy, coalition-building, and public engagement, Dr. Alexander has made great strides in advancing youth justice reform and equity. As a policy leader within the Colorado Juvenile Defender Center (CJDC) and the Colorado Criminal Defense Institute (CCDI), Dr. Alexander played a key role in advancing youth justice reforms, including Colorado HB21-1064, which aided in ending the placement of youth on the sex offense registry, and Colorado HB21-1315, which eliminated juvenile court fines and fees. As the founding director of the UNC Charlotte Violence Prevention Center, she continues to bridge research and advocacy by engaging in national efforts to reform juvenile sentencing, contributing to Supreme Court amicus briefs, and mentoring the next generation of scholar-advocates. Through her teaching, writing, and more than 160 media appearances, Dr. Alexander has become a national voice for youth justice, advancing policies that affirm the potential of at-promise youth.

The Sommer Klag Advocacy Achievement Award builds on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s long tradition of public health advocacy. Established in honor of Deans Emeriti Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS ’73, and Michael Klag, MD, MPH ’87, the award seeks to inspire the next generation of advocates and champions. Its launch as a joint initiative between the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the Johns Hopkins Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy marks an important step in recognizing the field’s most effective advocates and ensuring that advocacy remains a strategic priority in public health education and practice.

Dr. Alexander will be presented with the award during the APHA Public Health Awards Ceremony & Luncheon on Monday, November 3 at 12:30 p.m.

For more information on the Sommer Klag Advocacy Award program, visit the Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy website.

For more information on the upcoming APHA Annual Meeting, visit their events page.