Alexandra de Castro Vasconcelos, MD, PhD, is a paediatrician and researcher with expertise in tropical and paediatric infectious diseases, pharmaceutical medicine, and social paediatrics.

Researcher at the Global Health and Tropical Medicine Centre – Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical (GHTM/IHMT), Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (UNL) and a member of Women in Global Health – Lusophone Community (WGH). Her PhD in Tropical Medicine (IHMT-UNL) addressed maternal and neonatal health in resource-constrained settings, with a focus on neonatal mortality and morbidity in Sao Tome and Principe, including adolescent pregnancy. Her PhD was distinguished with the Professor Cruz Ferreira Award (2023) and the Garcia de Orta Award (2023), IHMT-UNL.

She has been a consultant for INFARMED – the Portuguese National Authority of Medicines and Health Products – for over 20 years and a member of its Medicines Evaluation Committee (CAM) since 2013. Her work in pharmaceutical medicine focuses on drug safety assessment, regulatory decision-making, and promoting the rational and safe use of medicines in children.

She is President of the Social Pediatrics Section (SPS) of the Portuguese Society of Pediatrics (SPP) for the 2025–2027 term, having been actively involved since 2013. She contributed to the establishment of the NHACJR at Hospital Professor Doutor Fernando Fonseca and has extensive experience in addressing adverse childhood experiences. She has also led national social paediatrics initiatives, including the development of national guidelines on preschool napping. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she worked as a hospital paediatrician in the Paediatric Infectious Disease Unit at Hospital Dona Estefânia, Centro Hospitalar Universitário de Lisboa Central (CHULC, EPE).