Althea Alexander, who built a diverse pipeline of medical students at USC, dies

As an assistant dean of diversity and inclusion at USC, Dr. Althea Alexander spent time speaking in high school classrooms across the United States, in search of undeveloped talent among Black and brown students in hopes of guiding them toward the field of medicine.

She mentored minority medical students and sought to improve the school’s efforts to recruit diverse students. Her work, spanning five decades, paid off tenfold: She influenced the career paths of hundreds who would go on to become medical school deans, chief executives and even California’s surgeon general.

Alexander, 89, died on July 17 after suffering a brain hemorrhage, according to her daughter, Kim Alexander-Brettler. Her mother formed deep and enduring relationships driven by a passion for civil rights and sincerity in helping young people better themselves and their communities, Alexander-Brettler said.

"It’s not anything she had to practice," Alexander-Brettler said. "It came from her soul. It came very naturally for her to give."

Alexander arrived at USC in 1968, becoming the first female and Black faculty member. At the time, there was one Black and one Latino medical student enrolled. Alexander sought to change that. USC estimates that she influenced the lives of at least 800 minority students at the Keck School of Medicine by her retirement in 2019.

In 1969, she became the inaugural dean of Minority Affairs, which would later become the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. In 1992, she told The Times that she believed students of color were never told that they had the intelligence, capability or sensitivity to become doctors, and she wanted to instill that in them as early as she could.

She spoke at high schools and encouraged students to keep in touch. She promised the students and their families that if they put in the work, she would help them as best as she could to find them a place in a medical school.

“We have to train young people to make a contribution to society,” she told The Times. “If someone would give us a grant to start in kindergarten, I would do that.”

Among them was Dr. Diana E. Ramos, who was a high schooler headed to USC for undergrad when she met Althea and her husband, Fredric. At an annual check-up, Ramos met a nurse practitioner who introduced her to her boss, Fredric, after learning she wanted to be a doctor. He introduced her to his wife, an assistant dean at USC’s medical school, and from then on, Althea became a guiding force for Ramos, who was born in South Central and the first in her family to go to college. Ramos graduated from USC’s medical school in 1994.

“Whenever I was wanting to give up or just needed a little pep talk, she was always there,” said Ramos, who became California’s surgeon general in 2022. When Ramos took on the role with lingering feelings of inadequacy, Alexander quelled those doubts and told her she was fit for the job. “Of course,” her mentor told her. “Why not you?”

At USC, Alexander pushed admissions to consider non-traditional experiences in addition to grades and test scores, such as considering an applicant’s work and family history. She and her family hosted dozens of students, often for months at a time, in their home. Alexander helped others pay rent and bought cars for those who couldn't afford them so they could attend school, Alexander-Brettler said.

Alexander had a national and international influence as well, with many of the students at USC going on to study across the country. At a memorial service held Saturday, where former students shared stories of her impact on their lives, speakers shared how Alexander encouraged them to come to the U.S. from China to expand their medical education.

She did not shy away about speaking bluntly about racism in the medical field. She previously told The Times about an instance when she went to the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center to seek aid after breaking her arm. A white attending resident told her to “hold your arm like you usually hold your can of beer on Saturday night.”

“What are you talking about?” she demanded. “Do you think I’m a welfare mother?”

She told students that they would surely confront the same issues.

“This is not a utopia,” Alexander would say. “You are what you are. ... You cannot die on every hill here. If somebody makes a racist comment in class, you cannot spend all your energy on that. Be principled and deal with it. Say: ‘I don’t appreciate that.’ Then, move on.”

She shared a passion for civil rights advocacy, joining protesters during the East L.A. protests in 1970, and had a United Farm Workers flag hanging in her office signed by Cesar Chavez.

Alexander had known her husband, Fredric Eugene, since they were children because their parents were union organizers. But in 1959, a young civil rights leader named Martin Luther King Jr. reintroduced the two. Fredric and Althea married at the Unitarian Church in downtown L.A. Fredric died in 2009.

Althea Alexander was born March 16, 1935, in Berkeley. In addition to her daughter, she is survived by her son, Sean Alexander, and granddaughters Danielle and Lauren Brettler.

Alexander loved music and made a habit of attending live performances. Alexander-Brettler recalled one Prince concert at the Forum where she begged her mom to leave as it approached midnight because she had work the next day. But Alexander insisted that they stay through all four songs in Prince's encore, dancing all the while. To close Saturday's memorial service, USC's marching band performed.

"It was the cherry on the top," Alexander-Brettler said. "We had a party at the end there."

Alexander’s legacy lives on: In 1997, one USC alumna established the Althea Alexander Endowed Scholarship Fund to support minority medical students. A group of students established the Althea and Fredric Alexander Student Support Fund to financially support medical students’ professional development where donations can be made in her memory .

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .