Name: Alexandra Desautels 

Pronouns: She/Her

Title: Senior Program Manager, Power Infrastructure  at The California Endowment 

Alexandra Desautels joined The California Endowment as Program Manager for Strategy Development in January 2014, and has since moved into the role of Senior Program Manager, Power Infrastructure. In this role, Desautels is responsible for working with staff across the foundation to sharpen the core elements of the BHC strategy. Desautels also manages portfolios related to building the state’s power infrastructure, from building narrative power to increasing the strengths of networks and alliances. 

Prior to joining The Endowment, Desautels served as the Local Policy Manager for the Alameda County Public Health Department (ACPHD). While there, she oversaw the implementation of Place Matters, ACPHD’s first local policy initiative for advancing health equity through social and environmental policy change in criminal justice, economics, education, housing, land use, and transportation.  

Other positions held at ACPHD include serving as the Community Health Advisor to Oakland Mayor’s office where she advised the Mayor and his staff on the health equity implications of various policy issues, and serving on numerous technical advisory boards, including the West Oakland Specific Plan, a Metropolitan Transportation Commission study on health facility locations and access to transit,  Oakland Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Advisory Council. 

Before joining ACPHD, Desautels worked in youth development in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.  She is the recipient of the Mabel Goode Management and Planning Award and the Davenport Research Award for Public Policy. Desautels earned her B.A. in American Studies, with honors, from Wesleyan University in Middleton, CT, and her Master of Social Welfare (MSW) with a Management, Planning and Policy focus from the University of California, Berkeley.