Departmental Affiliations
Center & Institute Affiliations
Tesfa Alexander, PhD, MA, uses the principles of marketing and health communication science to advance public health advocacy and programs.
Research Interests
marketing; advocacy; public education campaigns; tobacco use; social determinants of health; campaign effectiveness; mental health and addiction
Additional Links
Experiences & Accomplishments
Dr. Tesfa Alexander is the Deputy Director of the Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and an associate practice professor. He brings a distinguished background in health communication science and marketing, having served in executive leadership roles at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and at mission-focused research and development firms, including the MITRE Corporation and Battelle Memorial Institute. During his tenure at the FDA, Dr. Alexander led a team of scientists and social marketers in establishing the scientific foundation for the agency's national tobacco education campaigns. He began his professional career on Madison Avenue, where he gained valuable insights into consumer marketing that continue to inform his approach to public health advocacy, program development, and evaluation.
Select Publications
Dutra LM, Farrelly MC, Bradfield B, Mekos D, Jones C, Alexander T (2023) Awareness of and receptivity to FDA’s point-of-sale tobacco public education campaign. PLoS ONE 18(7): e0288462. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288462
Morgane Bennett, Jessica Speer, Nathaniel Taylor, Tesfa Alexander, Changes in E-cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights Into Risk Perceptions and Reasons for Changing Use Behavior, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, Volume 25, Issue 2, February 2023, Pages 350–355, https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntac136
Sojung Claire Kim, Xiaoquan Zhao, Nate S Brophy, Matthew W Walker, Tesfa N Alexander, Visual Attention to the Source Matters: Using Eye Tracking to Understand the FDA’s ‘Every Try Counts’ Campaign Message Effectiveness, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, Volume 24, Issue 2, February 2022, Pages 280–284, https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntab185
Erik Crankshaw, Jennifer Gaber, Jamie Guillory, Laurel Curry, Matthew Farrelly, McKinley Saunders, Leah Hoffman, Ollie Ganz, Janine Delahanty, Debra Mekos, Tesfa Alexander, Final Evaluation Findings for This Free Life, a 3-Year, Multi-Market Tobacco Public Education Campaign for Gender and Sexual Minority Young Adults in the United States, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, Volume 24, Issue 1, January 2022, Pages 109–117, https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntab146
Duke JC, Farrelly MC, Alexander TN, et al. Effect of a National Tobacco Public Education Campaign on Youth’s Risk Perceptions and Beliefs About Smoking. American Journal of Health Promotion. 2017;32(5):1248-1256. doi:10.1177/0890117117720745