Alejandro Acero was born in the city of Santa Marta, Colombia. Growing up he was raised in Arizona, Colombia, and Mexico until attending high school in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. He completed his undergraduate education at Brown University where he double concentrated in Public Health and Economics, completing a capstone project that explored the health effects of incarceration based on data from the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance Systems (BRFSS). He joined the Institute for Urban Policy Research in 2015, and his research interests include public health and economic equity for marginalized groups, particularly sexual and gender minorities, sex workers, substance users, and the formerly incarcerated.