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Biography

Alejandra Postlethwaite, MD s a board certified child and adolescent psychiatrist. She was born and raised in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico and attended medical school at the Universidad Autonoma of Guadalajara. After medical school Alejandra worked in Oaxaca where she started her research and clinical career focused on helping battered women and children. She received her first three years of psychiatric training at Harvard Medical School where she also completed a fellowship in psychodynamic psychotherapy. She transferred to UCSD’s psychiatry program as a 4th year inpatient chief resident. Alejandra completed her fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Hospital where she was chief resident (fellow) and was honored with the prestigious Gertude R Greenblatt, MD award for humanity work and the American Psychoanalytic Association Fellowship Award. Other honors include Lewis L. Judd’s Senior Resident Research Award, UCSD’s medical student teaching award, the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Chief Resident leadership travel award, the Clinical Research Issues in Latino Mental Health Young Investigators Travel Award, and the APA Minority Fellowship Award.
After residency Alejandra worked as a rural child and adolescent psychiatrist with high-risk youth in Calexico, CA for 4 years. She is actively involved in the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) Diversity and Culture Committee, UCSD Psychiatry Department Diversity Committee, San Diego County Behavioral Health Services WET Sustainability and Early Childhood Mental Health Committees, and was the lead of OSHPD’s Psychiatry Career Pathway development project. Alejandra is currently the Associate Training Director for UCSD’s Community Psychiatry Fellowship Program, staff psychiatrist at Rady Children’s Hospital EPSDT School Based Clinic, coordinator for the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry fellow’s School Based Rotation, and staff child and adolescent psychiatrist at La Maestra. Her research career has involved projects on the effects of acculturation in Latino mental health, childhood trauma and parental bonding.

Research Interests

Latino Mental Health Issues, Mental Health Issues related to Parental Bonding, Resilience in Latinos, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Issues