Alejandra Campoverdi (born September 20, 1979) is an American women’s health advocate, best-selling author, and former White House aide.[1][2] Under President Barack Obama, Campoverdi was the first White House Deputy Director of Hispanic Media.[3][4][5]
Early life and education
Born in Los Angeles, Campoverdi was raised by a single mother and her grandmother who immigrated to the United States from Mexico.[6] Alejandra spent her childhood sharing a cramped apartment in Santa Monica with extended family.[7]
There were periods when Campoverdi's family was on welfare, WIC, and Medi-Cal, California’s public health insurance program.[8] A strong academic performer, Alejandra attended Saint Monica Catholic High School on financial assistance and with the support of non-profits and pipeline programs.[7][9]
After working for the Agricultural Worker Health Initiative at The California Endowment, a health-focused foundation that expands access to quality and affordable healthcare to underserved communities in California,[11] and following her master's degree, Campoverdi was hired by then-Senator Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, to work in the Chicago headquarters.[11] She lived off her credit cards, had no health insurance, and stayed in supporter housing.[8] Campoverdi's focus during the campaign was outreach to various constituent groups, including the Latino community.[12]
Alejandra Campoverdi briefs President Obama in the Oval Office
Following Obama's victory, Campoverdi was appointed to work in the West Wing of the White House as Special Assistant to the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, Mona Sutphen.[13] She later became the first ever White House Deputy Director of Hispanic Media.[14] In the latter role, Campoverdi developed and implemented the White House’s communications strategy directed towards the Hispanic community and briefed President Obama in preparation for interviews with Hispanic media. Campoverdi also worked on White House communications around a broad range of issues, including the Affordable Care Act and its effects on the Latino community.[15]
After departing the White House, Campoverdi held various senior leadership roles in media, including at Univision and the Los Angeles Times. [16][6][17]
In 2017, Campoverdi was appointed to serve as a Commissioner for the California Children and Families Commission, also known as First 5 California. The Commission is a statewide body that is dedicated to improving the lives of California’s youngest citizens and their families through a multi-faceted approach that includes education, health services, childcare, and other vital programs.[1]
Previously, she was a volunteer teacher for InsideOUT Writers, through which she taught a weekly creative writing class to incarcerated youth in Los Angeles’ Central Juvenile Hall.[9]
Women's health advocacy
In March 2017, Campoverdi revealed in a profile by The Washington Post that she inherited the BRCA2 gene mutation, giving her an 85% risk of developing breast cancer, and that she planned to have a preventive double mastectomy. Campoverdi lost both her great-grandmother and grandmother to breast cancer, and her mother and two aunts have also battled the disease.[6][25]
Campoverdi made the protection of access to affordable healthcare and the Affordable Care Act a focus of her congressional campaign, choosing to speak publicly about her personal health in an effort to bring attention to the stakes of limited access to healthcare.[26]
In 2017, Campoverdi was awarded Penn Medicine's Basser Center for BRCA's inaugural YLC Distinguished Advocacy Award for her advocacy around BRCA-related cancers.[27]
The following year, Alejandra underwent a preventive double mastectomy to lower her risk of developing breast cancer. Routine testing of the removed tissue subsequently revealed she had unknowingly had Stage 0, non-invasive breast cancer,[25] which every previous mammogram, ultrasound, and MRI had not detected.[25] Because of her preventive surgery, Campoverdi did not need to do any additional treatment, and went on to say, "I beat breast cancer before I even knew I had it."[28]
Campoverdi speaks often about the importance of being your own best health advocate and her decision to be "CEO of her own body."[25] She is the founder of The Well Woman Coalition, an initiative aiming to empower women of color to have agency over their own health and healing through awareness, education, and advocacy.[29] Campoverdi also founded LATINX & BRCA in partnership with Penn Medicine's Basser Center for BRCA, which is the first awareness campaign on the BRCA gene mutation that targets Latinos and offers Spanish-language educational materials.[25]
In an op-ed for Cosmopolitan,[30] Campoverdi wrote, "Now more than ever, we must recognize and accept the complexity of real women, and celebrate them in their quest for leadership roles. Whole, multi-dimensional women. Please throw your name in the arena, whichever one you’re in — because it only gets better every time one of us tries."[31]
PBS documentary, Inheritance
In 2020, Campoverdi produced and appeared in the PBS documentary Inheritance. Named one of the “Best Documentaries of 2020” by ELLE, Inheritance follows three women's experience with hereditary breast cancer and the BRCA gene mutation, as they undergo life-altering medical procedures in the hope of reducing their risk and saving their own lives.[32] A medical device company, Sientra Breast Implant Company, is the corporate sponsor of the film that had an estimated $800,000 budget.
FIRST GEN (memoir)
On September 12, 2023, Campoverdi published a book, FIRST GEN: A Memoir,[9] about navigating her educational journey as a "First and Only" of many professional experiences. Described as "part memoir, part manifesto," FIRST GEN's major themes address "generational inheritance, aspiration, and belonging" for those who are trailblazers of all kinds.[33]
Within a week of publication, FIRST GEN was a best-seller, and the book was chosen as the 2024 Opportunity Matters Book Club selection for the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE), a national book club for first-generation and low-income students at colleges and universities across the country.[34][35]
