Alondra Oubré

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Alondra Yvette Oubré is a black female author, speaker, research consultant, and medical anthropologist.

[edit] Early Life and Education

She was born in 1950 and currently resides in Southern California. Dr. Oubré earned her M.A. in anthropology and a Ph.D. in anthropology and medical anthropology from UC Berkeley. Over the past twenty years, her research has helped to bridge the gap between orthodox modern medicine and complementary alternative healing practices. She is one of a small number of African American scientists trained in ethnopharmacology-the study of medicinal plants and other natural substances for pharmaceutical use. Dr. Oubré's desire to develop new therapeutic tools to fight disease led her to study medical anthropology.

By the time she was in graduate school, her interests had expanded to include the evolution of the human brain and the origin of human races. During the 1970's, she studied traditional Chinese, African, Native American, and Hawaiian herbal medicines. She gained great insight into non-Western healing systems, and her goal quickly to integrate these practices into traditional Western medicine. In 1992, she joined Shaman Pharmaceuticals as a staff scientist. She became perhaps[citation needed] the first full-time medical anthropologist for a pharmaceutical company. Since childhood, Alondra has been intrigued with race, ethnicity, and xenophobia, or fear of those different from one's own group. Her studies in physical anthropology and human evolution have shed light on the subject of race and race relations.

[edit] Published Works and Research

She is the author of Instinct and Revelation, and has published articles such as “The Adaptionist Yardstick” and “Black English Vernacular and Educability” as well as many other writings covering scientific topics such as plant drug research, pharmacology, and human biodiversity. She has written much about the nature vs. nurture debate over ethnic differences.

Alondra Oubré is devoted to bridging the ethnic divide that blocks optimal growth and personal satisfaction for people of all backgrounds[neutrality disputed]. By using scientific evidence that refutes notions of inborn racial superiority and inferiority, Dr. Oubré fosters increased intellectual, empathetic, and experiential awareness of human behavior, cross-culturally[neutrality disputed]. Her forthcoming book, Race, Genes and Ability: Rethinking Ethnic Differences, challenges the idea that ethnic differences in IQ scores and social behaviors result from race-based genetics. An earlier book, Instinct and Revelation: Reflections on the Origins of Numinous Perception, (1997) explores the role of early religious thought in the emergence of human consciousness and the evolution of the human brain. Currently she is a writer and health care research consultant in Southern California.

Besides being a writer of numerous scientific articles, Dr. Oubré is a medical anthropologist and research consultant. Over the past decade, she has worked in research and development for the private sector. Dr. Oubré's scientific interests include biocultural perspectives on human disease, evolutionary psychobiology, human evolution, medical ethnobotany, and traditional medicine. Her main interest in life is to help promote science education -- especially evolutionary biology -- in the African American community. In her new book, Instinct and Revelation, she uses a multidisciplinary approach to analyze the evolution of human consciousness.

[edit] References

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