Natasha Alford

Natasha S. Alford is an award-winning journalist, TV host, and media executive driven by the power of storytelling to inspire and change people’s lives. Alford serves as Vice President of Digital Content for theGrio and an anchor for theGrio TV. She is also a CNN Political Analyst, offering commentary on the news, politics, and movements of the moment.

Alford is known for her dynamic on-camera interviews where she’s probed the minds of prominent figures such as Vice President Kamala Harris, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Stacey Abrams, Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Gloria Steinem, and more. Alford was named “Emerging Journalist of the Year” by the National Association of Black Journalists in 2018.

She was selected as a 2019 Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting grantee, and used the grant to executive produce the original Amazon Prime Video documentary on the complexities of Afro-Latin identity titled: ‘Afro-Latinx Revolution: Puerto Rico’ (2020).

In 2020, Alford was awarded a Black Voices for Black Justice grant for her journalism work and announced the formation of a new scholarship to support aspiring journalists of color.

Other honors include being a 2020 Poynter Women’s Leadership Academy graduate, 2019 Maynard 200 Fellow, and a 2017 Harvard Women’s Leadership Award recipient.

Alford's TEDx talk "The Courage to Report" detailed her experience as a local TV news reporter in the era of digital media and Black Lives Matter.

Alford's writing and on-air commentary appeared on theGrio during her tenure as Deputy Editor, as well as numerous other outlets, including The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, Vogue, and The Oprah Magazine. A former educator, Alford has also served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in visual journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

A native of Syracuse, NY, Alford graduated from city schools and holds a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism (MSJ ‘14), and a B.A. from Harvard University in Social Studies (‘08).

Alford resides in New Jersey and devotes her free time to mentoring aspiring journalists and students through The OpEd Project.