Rebecca Alexander
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{short description|American Deafblind psychotherapist, author and advocate}}
{{about||the member of the Tennessee House of Representatives|Rebecca Alexander (politician)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Rebecca Alexander
| birth_name = Rebecca Ann Alexander
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1979|2|4}}
| birth_place = Berkeley, California, U.S.
| education = University of Michigan (BA)
Columbia University (MSW, MPH)
| occupation = Psychotherapist, author, group fitness instructor, disability rights advocate
| known_for = Not Fade Away: A Memoir of Senses Lost and Found
| relatives = Peter Alexander (brother)
| website = {{url|https://www.rebalexander.com/}}
}}
Rebecca Ann Alexander (born February 4, 1979) is an American psychotherapist and author. Deafblind due to Usher syndrome, Alexander wrote a memoir in 2014 about coming to terms with her deteriorating sight as well as her feats as an extreme athlete, such as climbing to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. In 2016, she received a Helen Keller Achievement Award from the American Foundation for the Blind.
Early life and education
Rebecca Ann Alexander was born into a Jewish family on February 4, 1979, in Oakland, California, to mother Terry Pink Alexander and father David Alexander, an attorney.{{cite web |title=Rebecca Alexander |url=http://lighthouse.org/events/double-up-4-vision/meet/alexander/ |website=Lighthouse International |access-date=April 2, 2022 |archive-date=June 21, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110621000501/http://lighthouse.org/events/double-up-4-vision/meet/alexander/}}{{cite news |last1=Harris |first1=Liz |title=Fading sight and sound turn Oakland native into a fighter |url=https://www.jweekly.com/2014/09/19/fading-sight-and-sound-turn-oakland-native-into-a-fighter/ |newspaper=J |access-date=April 2, 2022 |date=September 19, 2014}} She has two siblings; a twin brother, Kevin, and older brother Peter Alexander, a journalist and White House correspondent for NBC News.{{cite news |last1=Kim |first1=Eun Kyung |title=Driven by sister's fading sight, Peter Alexander dons blindfold for a good cause |url=https://www.today.com/health/how-eye-see-it-challenge-peter-alexander-driven-sister-s-t103196 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |work=TODAY.com |date=September 23, 2016 |language=en}}
Alexander was diagnosed with vision loss at age twelve, originally diagnosed as retinitis pigmentosa. While in school she played soccer and participated in the Maccabiah Games, as well as attending Temple Sinai in Oakland. At age eighteen, a fall from a second-story window resulted in months of physical rehabilitation and delayed her start to college. When she began college, she began experiencing tinnitus, and received a diagnosis of Usher syndrome type III at age twenty.{{cite web |last1=Cohen |first1=Arianne |title=How Rebecca Alexander Navigates Life in New York While Going Deaf and Blind – New York Magazine – Nymag |url=https://nymag.com/news/features/53787/ |website=New York Magazine |access-date=April 2, 2022 |language=en-us |date=January 30, 2009}}
Alexander earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and double master's degrees from Columbia University in social work and public health.{{cite web |last1=Nasiatka |first1=Marissa |title=Our Interview with Rebecca Alexander |url=https://differentandable.org/stories/our-interview-rebecca-alexander |website=Different & Able |date=November 2020 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |archive-date=November 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123182657/https://differentandable.org/stories/our-interview-rebecca-alexander |url-status=dead }}
Life and honors
Alexander's memoir, Not Fade Away: A Memoir of Senses Lost and Found, was cowritten with Sascha Alper and published in 2014.{{cite web |title=Not Fade Away by Rebecca A. Alexander, Sascha Alper |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/313594/not-fade-away-by-rebecca-alexander-sascha-alper/ |website=Penguin Randomhouse |access-date=April 2, 2022}} Alexander appeared on Today, Morning Joe, and other shows to promote her book.{{cite news |last1=Alexander |first1=Peter |title='A lot happier': Why Rebecca Alexander won't let going blind, deaf, hold her back |url=https://www.today.com/health/peter-alexanders-sister-rebecca-wont-let-going-blind-deaf-hold-1D80146626 |access-date=April 2, 2022 |work=TODAY.com |date=September 15, 2014 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Forging ahead despite losing hearing, vision |url=http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/forging-ahead-despite-losing-hearing--vision-330222659664 |website=MSNBC.com |access-date=April 2, 2022 |language=en |date=September 17, 2014}} In 2019, Not Fade Away was reported to be in the process of being made into a movie screenwritten by Lindsey Ferrentino, produced by John Krasinski and David O. Russell, and starring Emily Blunt.{{cite news |last1=Herbert |first1=James |title='Silent No More' bringing struggles, successes of those with hearing loss to the stage |url=https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/theater/story/2019-06-18/silent-no-more-bringing-struggles-successes-of-those-with-hearing-loss-to-the-stage |access-date=April 2, 2022 |work=San Diego Union-Tribune |date=June 28, 2019}}
A book review in The New York Times described how Alexander "pushes herself to grueling physical feats," participating in marathons and week-long charity bike rides.{{cite news |last1=Bouton |first1=Katherine |title=Young, Stricken and Determined to Fight |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/science/a-frightening-diagnosis-is-only-start-of-the-story-in-not-fade-away-and-now-i-see-you.html |access-date=April 2, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=October 20, 2014}} Her travels have included climbing the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, swimming the frigid 1.5 miles of ocean water between Alcatraz Island to San Francisco's Aquatic Park, and summiting Mount Kilimanjaro.{{cite news |last1=Riley |first1=Cailin |title=An Unlikely Friendship That Thrives In Spite Of Challenges |url=https://www.27east.com/east-hampton-press/an-unlikely-friendship-that-thrives-in-spite-of-challenges-1632296/ |access-date=April 2, 2022 |work=27 East |date=August 10, 2018}}{{cite web |last1=Keating |first1=Caitlin |title=Rebecca Alexander Climbs Mount Kilimanjaro |url=https://people.com/human-interest/rebecca-alexander-climbs-mount-kilimanjaro/ |website=People.com |access-date=April 2, 2022 |language=en |date=September 9, 2015}} She also teaches spinning and high-intensity training at a New York City gym.
Alexander was one of the performers in the traveling production "Silent No More," created by Ali Stroker in 2019 to highlight the stories of deaf and hard of hearing people.
She has received several awards, including the Helen Keller Achievement Award in 2016 from the American Foundation for the Blind, the Eagle Award in 2017 from Disability Rights Advocates, and Bicentennial Alumni Award in 2017 from the University of Michigan.{{cite web |title=Usher Syndrome Society Board & Staff |url=https://www.ushersyndromesociety.org/who-we-are/staff.html/title/rebecca-alexander |website=Usher Syndrome Society |access-date=April 2, 2022 |language=en}} In 2018 she threw a ceremonial first pitch at a Boston Red Sox game to raise awareness of Usher syndrome.{{cite web |last1=Daley |first1=Lauren |title=Rebecca Alexander is completely deaf and slowly going blind. Her next stop is Fenway. |url=https://www.boston.com/culture/lifestyle/2018/08/22/rebecca-alexander-fenway/ |website=boston.com |access-date=April 2, 2022 |date=August 22, 2018}}
References
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External links
- {{official site|https://www.rebalexander.com/}}
- [https://nymag.com/news/features/53787/ Going Deaf and Blind in a City of Noise and Lights] profile on Alexander from The New Yorker (2009)
- [https://differentandable.org/stories/our-interview-rebecca-alexander Our Interview with Rebecca Alexander] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123182657/https://differentandable.org/stories/our-interview-rebecca-alexander |date=November 23, 2022 }} 36-minute video interview from Different & Able (2020)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Rebecca}}
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:American psychotherapists
Category:Columbia University School of Social Work alumni
Category:Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health alumni
Category:American deafblind people
Category:Writers from Oakland, California
Category:University of Michigan alumni
Category:American scientists with disabilities
Category:Blind scholars and academics
Category:Deaf scholars and academics