Alexander is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative (ICAPO), an international conservation organization aimed at researching and protecting hawksbill turtles in the eastern Pacific Ocean, as well as improving the socioeconomic conditions of members of impoverished coastal communities that depend on hawksbill turtles for their livelihood. He is also Vice-Chair of the Eastern Pacific Region for the IUCN Sea Turtle Specialist Group and has led programs focused on nesting beaches, aquatic monitoring and reduction of sea turtle bycatch in countries across the Americas Latina for more than a decade.

He holds a Master’s in Biology from San Diego State University (SDSU), which focused on using satellite telemetry technologies to gain insights into the spatial ecology of hawksbill turtles. This research led to the discovery that hawksbill turtles predominantly inhabit mangrove estuaries in the eastern Pacific rather than the coral reef systems used by the species in other ocean regions. These findings have had wide implications for the understanding of the natural history of the hawksbill turtle and the implementation of effective conservation strategies. Alexander has a Ph.D.  UC Davis and SDSU, and  he currently works with the Southwest Fisheries Science Center (NOAA/NMFS) on the implementation of molecular tools to understand the genetics of the hawksbill turtle and help design management actions.