A Career Built on History, Images, and Discipline

Alysia Steele did not build her career overnight.

It was shaped over decades of showing up, meeting deadlines, and doing the work when no one was watching. Her path moved through newsrooms, classrooms, archives, and communities. At each step, she focused on craft, responsibility, and people.

Today, Steele is recognized as a leader in photojournalism and oral history. Her work preserves stories that might otherwise be lost. It also reflects how long-term careers are built in media and academia.

Early Life and the Discipline That Shaped Her Career

Steele grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Raised primarily by her paternal grandparents, they taught her structure and accountability.

“School and grades came first,” she says. “Hard work was a must. Respecting elders was non-negotiable.”

She attended the now defunct Harrisburg Arts Magnet School and focused on photography and visual storytelling. Mornings were spent in college-prep classes at her high school, John Harris High School, and afternoons were dedicated to learning composition, light, and developing film. By her junior year of high school, Steele was already winning state photography awards and earning scholarships.

She also earned a spot at the prestigious Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts, where she studied photography during the summer at Bucknell University as a teenager. Still, her path forward was not smooth.

Education Earned Through Persistence

Steele left college early after a difficult experience at a rural Pennsylvania campus. The environment was isolating, and the experience left a lasting mark.

“I was smart, but scared,” she says. “There was a lot of racial trauma. I wasn’t ready then. I wore a baseball cap that covered my face. Many times I was the only student of color in any given class I enrolled in.”

She had earned an associate degree in photography, where she learned studio, food, event, and portrait photography. Steele worked with formats from 35mm to large-format cameras and spent long hours in darkrooms developing film and printing her own photographs.

She later completed her bachelor’s degree in journalism, returning to the same school she once left. The turnaround was significant.

“I went back to face my fears,” Steele says. “I didn’t want that moment to define me.”

She completed competitive photography internships in several Michigan newsrooms, where speed and accuracy mattered. These roles prepared her for high-pressure environments in larger newsrooms.

Building Authority in Newsrooms

Steele spent years working in daily newspapers. She started as a staff photographer and later moved into picture editing and leadership roles. Her assignments ranged from local features to international reporting.

She was part of The Dallas Morning News photo team that earned the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina.

“I was watching the news at the picture desk – I was one of two night photo editors that worked at night, and the storm seemed bigger and indicated it would hit land harder than anticipated on the night I was working, Steele explained. “I called my boss, William Snyder, the director of photography, and advised him I thought we needed to move to New Orleans earlier than we originally planned. He told me to make a decision. So, I did, and called staff to travel to New Orleans. As a result, we captured when the storm hit and its initial impact.”

“In newsrooms, decisions are made fast,” she says. “You learn to trust your judgment and your team.”

She later became deputy director of photography at another major metropolitan paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In that role, she helped managed staff, hired interns and freelance photographers, and elevated visual standards for the paper.

Leadership, she says, came down to consistency. “You can’t cut corners and expect good results.”

From Journalism to Historical Record

In 2015, Steele published Delta Jewels: In Search of My Grandmother’s Wisdom. The book combined formal portraits with oral histories of elder Black church women across the Mississippi Delta. She traveled 6,000 miles to interview 54 elder women about their life experiences during Jim Crow in Mississippi. It is the only book that highlights a collective of Black women’s living experience in Mississippi, the epicenter for the Civil Rights Movement. Steele preserved stories that were rarely documented.

Activist Gloria Steinem endorsed the book. Best-selling author Roy Blount, Jr., endorsed the book. Civil rights activist Reena Evers, the daughter of Medgar and Myrlie Evers, endorsed the book. Steele went on to complete 96 speaking engagements over six years, including international, national, regional, and local academic conferences, churches, community centers, museums, and universities.

“The women trusted me with their stories,” Steele says. “That responsibility stays with you.”

The book earned a top Humanities award for cultural preservation in Mississippi. It also marked a shift in her career toward long-form historical work.

She later completed a Ph.D. in U.S. History, focusing on the Civil Rights Movement and Black women’s labor. Her dissertation became her second book, Traces of Elaine, which is under contract and scheduled for publication in 2028.

Teaching, Leadership, and Long-Term Impact

Alongside her writing, Steele spent more than a decade teaching journalism, multimedia production, podcasting, and layout and design. She became the first Black tenured professor in her The University of Mississippi’s School of Journalism and New Media’s history in 2020.

“I set my own standards,” she says. “I don’t believe in shortcuts for good work.” It was not the most welcoming environment but Steele focused on her work and setting her goals for excellence.

She also founded a national multimedia workshop, Lens Collective, that brought students from a dozen universities together with working, award-winning photojournalists who served as mentors by volunteering their vacation time for the workshop. Steele and the educator cohorts helped secure stories, while Steele managed funding, balanced budgets, and delivered measurable outcomes to the various deans who sponsored the workshop.

Beyond the classroom, Steele continues to teach community history courses and is co-authoring an oral history book with her husband, Bobby D. Steele, Jr. They have spent years interviewing some of the last generation to handpick cotton in Mississippi. Her husband decided to help co-author the book once Steele’s life was threatened for doing this critical work. Some in the state told her to leave the stories alone, but she is persisting because the work has never been done, and people want to talk to her. Their living experiences and memories deserve to be heard.

Work Ethic Over Recognition

Steele defines success in practical terms.

“Being happy with my career and making my family proud,” she says. “My family taught me to be humble and let my work speak for itself. I live by that example every day. I know who I am.”

She is known for finishing tasks early and managing priorities carefully. “I don’t procrastinate,” Steele adds. “I start a task and finish it.”

Time management, she says, was critical to completing her doctorate while working. “I had to stay organized because my study workload was heavy, as well as my normal professorial duties, and I didn’t want to drop the ball on my studies. Earning that doctorate was critically important for me,” she explained.

A Career Built to Last

Alysia Steele’s career reflects long-term thinking. She built credibility by doing the work, not by chasing attention. Her leadership comes from consistency, discipline, and respect for history.

“What we put into the world is what we get back,” she says. “I have more to share.”

For Steele, that approach has created a career with depth, durability, and impact.