Alexandra Allred


Alexandra Powe Allred is an American athlete, author, environmental advocate, and fitness instructor. She has written and contributed to more than 20 books, fiction and nonfiction.

Personal life

Allred was born in Frankfurt, West Germany and was raised in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic with her parents and one sister. Her father was an American diplomat stationed throughout Europe. She graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.A. in History. There, she met her husband Robb Allred and they were married in 1991. Alex has three children Kerri Allred Beckman, Katie Allred, and Tommy Allred.
In 2017, Allred graduated from Tarleton State University with a M.S. in Kinesiology. She teaches fitness at a gym in Dallas, Texas and Navarro College.

Career

Athletics

Alexandra Allred was the first female to make and form the US Women's Bobsleigh team in 1994 by winning the nationals competition with a push time of 6.386 seconds. She was four months pregnant with her second child at the time and was a subject in studies by Dr. James Clapp for health and fitness in pregnant athletes. These studies were used to write the Olympic Committee's safety guidelines for pregnant athletes in 1998.
Allred was featured in Redbook magazine, FIT magazine, and Oxygen magazine in articles about her expertise on health and exercise during pregnancy.
Allred was featured in Real Simple magazine as a coach and mentor for women in sports.
She has also been featured in several books as an expert on fitness and exercise.
The Allred family moved from Ohio to Midlothian, Texas in 2001. Alexandra's youngest child, then two-year old Tommy, had a sequence of pneumonias, bronchitis, and other asthma related complications. In 2008, the elementary school was named by the USA Today as being in the upper 1% of most toxic schools in the nation. In 2006, Alex, as a part of Downwinders at Risk, went to talk to Congress about clean air regulations. There she and her son Tommy met with future-President, then-Senator, Barack Obama and Senator Dick Durbin, and was nominated as a White House Champion of Change in Public Health in 2014.

Writing

Allred's most recent book is White Trash.
She wrote Damaged Goods which won the Independent Publisher's Silver medal.
The Allie Lindell Series of mystery novels contains Roadkill, Sweet Breath, and Anniversary Killer.
Her 2013 book, Swingman, was the inspiration for the documentary Swingman by filmmaker Mark Birnbaum.
She's contributed to several books on fitness and dog training. Best Breast Exercises: Simple Steps to Lift & Shape your Breasts and Get Fit For Your Pregnancy: Simple Exercises To Help You Look Great & Feel Energized Through Your Pregnancy .
In 2005, she was recruited by Volvo to test drive and then write about driving their prototype 'Extreme Gravity Car' then featured in Volvo Magazine.
Allred was diagnosed with dyslexia while at Texas A&M and has made it a mission to visit schools to speak to children and young adults with dyslexia to break the "I'm dumb" stigma. Allred cites that writing books is what made her overcome the stigma.

Fiction