Teresa Alexandra Lapa (born in Coimbra, Portugal in 1977) is a Portuguese anesthesiologist and scholar. ^[0] Early life Teresa Alexandra Santos Carvalho Lapa was born in Coimbra, Portugal on April 27th, 1977 to father João Carlos Lapa, a factory worker, later a family farmer, and mother Lurdes Ferreira, a family farmer, and lived most of her childhood and teenage years in the civil parish of Almalaguês, Coimbra. She attended Almalaguês' elementary school. She also attended Escola Preparatória do Poeta Manuel da Silva Gaio in the civil parish of Santa Clara, Coimbra. In the same civil parish she graduated from Escola Secundária D. Duarte high school after has studied some introductory principles of theoretical chemistry, biology and mathematics. She studied medicine at the University of Coimbra. ^[0]

Work and career

A medical specialist, she is specialized in anesthesia, critical care and pain medicine.

She has also worked at emergency medical services in Portugal. She has postgraduate studies by the University of Coimbra, University of Salamanca and University of Beira Interior, and has developed research work in the fields of anesthesia, pharmacogenetics and occupational burnout. ^{[0] [1] [2]}

Family A mother of two, she is married to João Miguel Castro, a self-directed stock investor. Lapa met her husband while both were classmates at the same high school in Coimbra. ^[0]