biography

Alexandra Powe Allred graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.A. in History and a minor in Russian. As the daughter of a U.S. Diplomat, Allred lived all over the United States and in several countries overseas. Her writing career began before graduation with several pieces on bi-lingual education with national education publications. As her writing career was taking off, Allred embraced her second passion -- sports.

Allred trained for and made the U.S. women's bobsled team from 1994-1998, where she won the gold medal at U.S. Nationals and was named Athlete of the Year by the United States Olympic Committee. She was four and a half months pregnant at the time! (The Silver medallist, Liz Parr-Smestad, was three months pregnant at the time.) Her training regimen was and is used by the United States Olympic Committee and International Olympic Committee for pregnant athletes.

In 1998, it followed that Allred returned to the literary world with a women's sports book, The Quiet Storm. While living in the Olympic Training Center, Allred was able to talk to Olympic athletes who all shared their own stories about the wonderful world of sports.

From there, Allred branched off into other non-fiction books including health, motherhood, business, and instructional dog training books. Allred worked as a profesional dog trainer for many years while considering a possible career as a veterinarian. Today, she trains dogs for physically challeneged people and really distressed puppy owners.

Allred was named Mom of the Month by iParenting.com, Author of the Month by qCircuit.com, and does freelance writing for Mature Living, Muscle&FitnessHers, and Columbus Parent magazines. But her true writing abilities (among other things) were put to the test when Sports Illustrated asked Allred to try out for, make, and write about a women's professional football team. She did just that, going all the way to the WPFL (Women's Professional Football League) Playoffs with her team, the Austin Rage.

Since then, Allred has returned to teaching kickboxing (Allred holds two blackbelts in tae kwon do) and has published a series of fiction books for children. She is most proud of her children's books as these are books her own children can read.

While extremely proud of her three children, Allred says her greatest accomplishment is graduating from college -- passing math and statistics -- after being diagnosed with dyslexia. Today, Allred is an active board member with Reading For the Blind & Dyslexic and a fitness and nutrition expert with www.pregnancy.org. Having worked with the Science/Sports Summer Camps in Columbus, Ohio, with inner city kids, Allred is dedicated to educational programs for underprivileged kids and continues to be an advocate for kid's health. Today she is lobbying with Congress to reinstate physical education and recess into the educational curriculum. Allred's platform is simple: "Studies have shown over and over again that children perform better in class, digest their reading material more easily, behave better and, overall, are happier in school when they are allowed a physical release. We must allow our children to blossom fully!"