{{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)<br>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.<ref name="Lighthouse">{{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/}}</ref><ref name="Harris2014">{{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}}</ref> She has two siblings; a twin brother, Kevin, and older brother Peter Alexander, a journalist and White House correspondent for NBC News.<ref name=Daley2018 /><ref>{{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}}</ref>
Alexander was diagnosed with vision loss at age twelve, originally diagnosed as retinitis pigmentosa.<ref name=Daley2018 /> While in school she played soccer and participated in the Maccabiah Games, as well as attending Temple Sinai in Oakland.<ref name=Harris2014 /> At age eighteen, a fall from a second-story window resulted in months of physical rehabilitation and delayed her start to college.<ref name=Harris2014 /> When she began college, she began experiencing tinnitus, and received a diagnosis of Usher syndrome type III at age twenty.<ref name=Daley2018 /><ref>{{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}}</ref>
Alexander earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and double master's degrees from Columbia University in social work and public health.<ref name="Nasiatka">{{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 }}</ref>
==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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Alexander appeared on ''Today'', ''Morning Joe'', and other shows to promote her book.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Herbert2019">{{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}}</ref>
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.<ref name="Bouton2014">{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Bouton2014 /><ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> She also teaches spinning and high-intensity training at a New York City gym.<ref name=Harris2014 />
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.<ref name=Herbert2019 />
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.<ref name="Usher Syndrome Society">{{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}}</ref> In 2018 she threw a ceremonial first pitch at a Boston Red Sox game to raise awareness of Usher syndrome.<ref name="Daley2018">{{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}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==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)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Rebecca}} Category:Living people Category:1979 births 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 writers Category:Writers from Oakland, California Category:University of Michigan alumni Category:American scientists with disabilities Category:Deafblind scholars and academics Category:Blind scientists