Blayne Alexander

Blayne Alexander is a correspondent for NBC News on its newsmagazine Dateline NBC.^[1]

Alexander was born and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She graduated from Duke University with a bachelor's degree in arts and is a member of the Delta Sigma Theta and National Association of Black Journalists.

She began her career with NBC News in 2008, working as a desk assistant at the network's Washington, D.C. bureau, where she did field producing, coordinating live shots from Capitol Hill, and later served as a production assistant for NBC Nightly News. During the 2008 election cycle, Alexander helped produce several special projects, including a post-debate focus group with Ann Curry, election night results from Charlotte, North Carolina, and most notably, President Barack Obama's inauguration from the US Capitol. She also wrote news articles and produced news stories for MSNBC.com.

In 2009, Blayne began her on-air TV reporting at WRDW-TV, a CBS affiliate based in Augusta, Georgia, where she also served as a fill-in anchor, multimedia journalist, photographer, and editor. While there, she covered many stories as a general assignment reporter and soon was fascinated by education, which became her beat. She also became involved in the Augusta community, emceeing events for the Augusta NAACP, Communities in Schools, and other organizations.

In 2011, she joined WXIA-TV, an NBC affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia as a reporter/anchor where for six years, she traveled and covered major stories which included the killing of Michael Brown, the Ferguson unrest protests in the aftermath of his death, the police-involved killing of Freddie Gray, and the deadly flooding in Houston. In 2016, Alexander spent nearly four weeks in Rio to provide exclusive coverage of the Summer Olympic Games for 11Alive News.^[2]Her other major assignments include covering the 2013 inauguration of President Barack Obama (her second time covering Obama's inauguration) after he was reelected, reporting from Selma during the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, and interviewing Congressman John Lewis in Washington during the opening celebration of the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture as the only Atlanta reporter to do so.

Alexander returned to NBC News in 2017, working at the NBC News Channel in Charlotte, NC, where she was based as a correspondent in Washington, D.C., covering Capitol Hill and the Trump Administration across the country for NBC affiliates. She worked her way up in 2019, becoming a mainstay at the network when she was promoted to NBC News and it was where she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, the George Floyd protests, the 2020 and 2022 elections in Georgia, and the indictments against Donald Trump in Georgia. She was eventually promoted to correspondent on Dateline NBC in 2024 after airing 2 stories on the program.^[3]

She recently gave a keynote commencement speech at Agnes Scott College to the graduating class of 2025.^[4]

Blayne has won many awards as a journalist covering so many major stories, especially being honored by the National Association of Black Journalists, as well as the Atlanta Press Club, and the Gracie Awards. She considers storytelling her passion.

Off-screen, Alexander has a busy personal life. She married her husband James Bailey in 2016 and have 2 young daughters Sage Milan and Skylar Alexander ages 3 and 1.^[5][6]

She contributes to foundations by serving as a role model for young girls and raises significant funds to combat various forms of poverty. She and her husband co-founded the Phoenix Leadership Foundation, a nonprofit organization aiming to provide role models and positive experiences for boys in underprivileged areas.