Before Alysia Steele assumed her role as an associate professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi, she had already established herself as an award-winning newspaper visual journalist, picture editor, and deputy director of photography. Her diverse experience includes teaching photojournalism, multimedia production, beginning writing, podcasting, BIPOC LGBTQ+ history, African American Women’s History, and oral history. Notably, she was a picture editor for The Dallas Morning News photo department that won the Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News for their coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2006. She then served as a deputy director of photography at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution before graduating and earning her master’s from the prestigious Ohio University’s Visual Communication program.

 

Steele’s academic journey is as impressive as her professional one. She earned her doctorate in U.S. History Post-Civil War at the University of Mississippi while working full-time in the School of Journalism and New Media. Her dissertation, the basis of this book, focuses on Elaine Tomlin, the first Black female staff photographer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
 

Steele’s 2015 groundbreaking book, Delta Jewels: In Search of My Grandmother’s Wisdom, is a testament to her significant contributions to the field of oral history and African American women’s history. The book, comprised of the formal portraits she took and the oral histories she collected of 54 elder African American church women in the Mississippi Delta, who shared their life experiences about the Jim Crow era, was endorsed by activist Gloria Steinem, best-selling author Roy Blount, Jr., and others. Steele’s work has been published in the New York Times, NBC.com, Chicago Sun-Times, NPR, USA Today, and Southern Living magazine, to name a few. In 2016, she won the esteemed Mississippi Humanities Council’s “Preserver of Mississippi Culture” award for her book and was a finalist for nonfiction for the Jessie Fauset book award. Steele previously served as a judge for the Best of Photojournalism (BOP) competition, Pictures of the Year (POY), and other contests. To date, Steele has presented at 94 speaking engagements about Delta Jewels.