Alejandro Varela 2023 UWSPH Graduation Speaker

ALEJANDRO VARELA, MPH, ‘06
2023 SPH Alumni Impact Award Recipient
Alejandro Varela (he/him) is a writer based in New York. His fiction incorporates public health themes, particularly around the chronic stress of living in hierarchical society. Prior to his writing career, Varela worked as a cancer researcher at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine where he studied the screening behaviors of East Harlem residents. In conjunction with the University of Washington’s (UW) International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH), he wrote HIV/AIDS-related training curriculum for the government workers of various ministries of health. Varela also taught policy advocacy and public health and film to graduate students at Brooklyn’s Long Island University, focusing specifically on the value of narrative and the importance of community-led interventions. His debut novel, The Town of Babylon (2022), was published by Astra House and was a finalist for the National Book Award, as well as a nominee for the PEN America Open Book Award and the Aspen Literary Prize. His work has appeared in The Point Magazine, Georgia Review, Boston Review, Harper’s, The New Republic and The Offing, among other outlets. Varela is an editor-atlarge of Apogee Journal, a literary magazine that centers historically marginalized writers and artists. He has a Master of Public Health degree from the UW, where he was in the Community-Oriented Public Health Practice (COPHP) program.