Alexandria Kristensen Cabrera ‘16

This bio is current as of 2020.

Alexandria Kristensen Cabrera is an MD-PhD student at the University of Minnesota focused on reducing disparities in maternal and infant birth outcomes. Her research has focused on understanding and improving perinatal outcomes, infant nutrition, and medical education. 

This profile was current as of 2016, when she was part of the on-campus Kellogg community.

Thesis Title: Community Based Breastfeeding Support Intervention for Mothers in Guachupita, Dominican Republic

Through the Kellogg Institute I have conducted 2 main research projects and am serving as a research assistant. In the summer of 2014 I looked at the factors associated with the practice of breastfeeding for mothers who attended the Dr. Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Based on those results, in the summer of 2015 we created and tested a community based breastfeeding support intervention in Guachupita (a neighborhood in Santo Domingo). This is also my third year as a research assistant to Dr. Smith-Oka. Her current project seeks to understand why empathy rates decline after the third year of medical school; especially analyzing the effects of social networks and stress on empathy.

To fund my research I received the Experiencing the World (ETW) Fellowship in 2014 and a Kellogg Research Grant in 2015. Both summers my research was conducted in the Dominican Republic collaborating with O&M Medical School in Santo Domingo. My general research interests include maternal and child health, maternal and child mortality reduction, early childhood and pregnancy nutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, infant feeding practices, and improving medical education.

Grant paper: Community Based Support Intervention to Promote the Practice of Breastfeeding for Mothers in Guachupita