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Natasha Alford knows what it’s like to balance a bank account against a dream. When she was 28, before she became an award-winning journalist, vice president of digital content at theGrio, documentarian or a mother, she left her high-paying hedge fund position to pursue her dream of becoming a journalist.

Although her parents back in Syracuse were baffled by the career shift, they still found ways to loan her money and support their daughter in her early years at Northwestern University and as a rookie reporter in Rochester. She had carved out a path to a higher purpose and wanted to see its eventual end destination.

“I would have regretted staying in place because it was the safe thing to do, and there was a great risk, but also great reward,” Alford said. “I’m doing work that’s meaningful. I do believe that I’m fulfilling a higher calling in terms of creating opportunities in Black media and beyond, and telling stories that often get overlooked.”

Today, Alford, 35, is a recurring on-air CNN political analyst — that is, when she’s not putting the final touches on her forthcoming documentary on solitary confinement, slated for release in late November on theGrio. Through it all, one constant has remained: her love and altruism for her childhood city of Syracuse and the next generation of diverse storytellers.

In late October, Alford returned to Syracuse as the Newhouse School of Public Communications’ Journalist-in-Residence, during which time she visited neighboring high schools and led discussions on navigating her mental health as a reporter. During her first community workshop, she encountered a surprise.

On behalf of Mayor Ben Walsh, director of marketing and communications Ruthnie Angrand proclaimed Oct. 18 to 22 as “Natasha Alford Empowerment through Journalism Week” in the city of Syracuse. For Alford, standing in the neighborhood where teachers first suggested that she should pursue journalism with this newly-bestowed distinction, the moment completed her journey.

“It was a really full-circle moment to be at the South Side Innovation Center, you know, in the same neighborhood that I grew up in, where my family is from, and just to be recognized for the journalism, for the storytelling that Syracuse really planted that seed,” Alford said.

Alford grew up on Southside’s Garfield Avenue, at a time when her family was one of the first Black families to live on the street. Vincent Cobb II, a longtime friend of Alford’s and CEO of the education nonprofit Summer House Institute, described the Southside in the ‘90s as a “tight-knit community,” so intertwined that for much of his young life, he believed Syracuse was a majority Black city.

Alford and Cobb met when they both attended Percy Hughes School and Cobb first saw Alford’s self-starter mentality, he said. They carried this competitive drive to Nottingham High School, and in high school, Alford competed in oratorical meets and played an active role in student government.

Cobb, an SU graduate himself, said one of Alford’s greatest assets is her ability to command a room through authentic storytelling. Together, they established what Cobb termed a “trading places” program between the suburban Fayetteville-Manlius High School, in which students from either school swap campuses for a day to gain perspective on educational inequities.

“You learn that when you live on the Southside, either because people make judgments about the area that you live in, or just like, visually, you see that stark contrast between the suburbs and the city,” Alford said. “I think you learn about the sort of two sides of the city.”

When Alford returned to Syracuse, her chief concern was making it to as many high schools as possible. Thanks to Cobb’s connections in education, he organized for Alford to visit four schools, where she would conduct roundtables and encourage interested students to apply to Newhouse. Cobb felt honored that Alford wanted him right on stage next to her for the group dialogues. Oftentimes, Alford said these conversations veered toward how community members can utilize media outlets to tell their stories.

“She’s always been the person that says ‘Hey, I want to take care of this to see if we can help these people out,’” Cobb’s father and manager of The Cage, Vincent Cobb, said. “She’s always about bringing people together and having that conversation.”

Today, both at CNN and theGrio, she creates conversations that “highlight humanity” with her brand of journalism. As a Black and Puerto Rican woman, finding story angles that less-diverse newsrooms overlook is one of the keys to her success, Alford said when she visited Newhouse on Sept. 22. Many of these stories also intersect with her own identity, including her documentary “Afro-Latinx Revolution: Puerto Rico.”

Cobb said content like her documentary and other works show what she has reckoned with being an Afro-Latina woman. In high school, she often felt as if she had to negotiate which identity to present, as if both weren’t an option. When she went to New York City and saw a more robust Afro-Latino population, it validated her decision to embrace both sides to her identity, Alford said.

“In upstate New York, sometimes identity can be reduced to black and white. And I mean that literally and figuratively,” Alford said. “There’s not a lot of representation of those who sit at intersections of identity. Some people may have a hard time understanding because they say, ‘Well, are you Black? Or are you Latino? Like, which one are you?’”

Such questions followed her through four years at Harvard University, where she founded Amplify magazine, a journal on gender issues. Upon graduating, Alford wanted to expand her leadership acumen and eventually secured a job at Bridgewater Associates in Connecticut, the world’s largest hedge fund. While she was there, she worked on a team with CEO Ray Dalio, gaining valuable insight into investment finance. Cobb said he recalls phone calls when Alford explained the job was giving her a “thick skin”

“What I’ve learned throughout my 20s is that you can be talented or great at a lot of things,” Alford said. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s ultimately what you’re meant to do. And so at each step of my career journey, I was looking for something different.”

Vincent Cobb II, a longtime friend of Alford’s, first saw Alford’s self-starter mentality when they both attended Percy Hughes School.
Courtesy of Vincent Cobb II

Cobb also remembers Alford calling him to say her job was self-serving and unrewarding. She wanted out. Unsatisfied by her current trajectory, she course-corrected and found purpose in education leadership at a charter school in Washington Heights in an underserved community. Alford loved the students she helped daily but took an estimated $65,000 pay cut and worked in a trailer that leaked in the winter time. Soon, she moved on to Washington, D.C., where she taught middle school English through Teach for America.

Finally, though, a low salary and financial difficulties meant another phone call to Cobb: She was applying to business school. But as she began pouring herself into personal application essays, Alford realized that writing and telling stories was her true calling. For many, the shift from educator to journalist may seem drastic, though Alford said that “journalism is a form of teaching” where both parties are learning in equal measure.

“Being a journalist is like this eternal license to be a student,” Alford said.

Alford has written a personal essay for Vogue on the fears of being a Black pregnant mother in America. She’s interviewed Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and actor Viola Davis. But her proudest accomplishment has been growing theGrio. What was once in 2015 a four-person team is now a full-scale operation with numerous news bureaus across the nation. Her role in its growth has unified her business knowledge and her passion for telling stories, she said.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if she was president one day or governor,” the elder Cobb said. “It’s just she’s got this kind of potential, and her personality, her compassion for people and empathy for people … she wants to see them be successful.”

Alford alluded to the possibility of one day being an SU professor: “Maybe one day, you never know. I’ll always be back.” For now, her upcoming 2023 memoir “American Negra” is only part one of a life where Alford embraced uncertainty to unearth its fullest rewards.

Published on November 15, 2021 at 12:16 am