Fernanda Alonso, PhD ‘22, LL.M, uses legal and qualitative research methods to analyze and improve public health policies and interventions, particularly in the areas of drug policy and NCDs.
Research Interests
drug policy; substance use; structural stigma; tobacco control; NCDs; public health policy; public health law; qualitative research methods
Experiences & Accomplishments
Education
PhD
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2022
LLM
Georgetown University
2014
BA
Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México
2013
Overview
Fernanda is an independent consultant and researcher, focusing on legal and policy interventions to address substance use, tobacco control and non-communicable diseases. She also uses qualitative research methods to improve health communication and analyze complex issues, including structural stigma. She completed her PhD in Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She studied law and economics at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in Mexico and completed her Master of Laws in Global Health Law at Georgetown University. Fernanda has worked on law and public health throughout her career, concentrating on drug policy and the regulation of risk factors for noncommunicable diseases. Previously, she worked as an Associate at the O'Neill Institute of National and Global Health at Georgetown University, as a legal specialist at the Pan American Health Organization, and as the Executive Director of the Drug Policy Program at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico. As a consultant, Fernanda has contributed to dozens of research projects, working for institutions such as the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at Hopkins, the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and the Institute for Health Equity at UCL.
Select Publications
Select publications from the last 10 years:
- Alonso F, Rath J, Ramírez AS, et al. Perceptions of and Experiences With Cigarette and E-Cigarette Use Among a Diverse Population of US Latino Adolescents and Young Adults. American Journal of Health Promotion. 2023;0(0).
- Alonso F, Welding K, Cohen JE. Laws and regulations governing rotation of health warning labels on cigarette packs in the Region of the Americas. Rev Panam Salud Publica. 2022;46:e123.
- Ernesto Zedillo, Catalina Pérez-Correa, Alejandro Madrazo, and Fernanda Alonso, Drug Policy in Mexico: The Cause of a National Tragedy—A Radical but Indispensable Proposal to Fix It, 41 U. Pa. J. Int’l L. 107 (2019).
- Hoe, C., Weiger, C., Minosa, M.K.R., Alonso F, et al. Strategies to expand corporate autonomy by the tobacco, alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverage industry: a scoping review of reviews. Global Health 18, 17 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-022-00811-x
- Alonso, Fernanda, “A History of México’s Drug Policy in the Twentieth Century”, chapter in: Thiago Rodrigues and Beatriz Labate (eds), Drogas, Política y Sociedad en América Latina y el Caribe (Drugs, Politics and Society in Latin America and the Caribbean), CIDE, Mexico City, 2015.