Alexa Imani Spencer is a journalist with experience covering health, business, finance, and education. Her work has appeared in USA TODAY, The Commercial Appeal, Black Enterprise, The Washington Informer and other publications.

Currently, Alexa covers health disparities and solutions in the Black community for Word In Black — a national digital newsroom founded in response to the murder of George Floyd. She also creates health-related content as a maternal health writer and researcher for Irth App, a premier health app focused on better health outcomes for Black mothers and birthing people. Coupled with her certification as a doula, she analyzes research and conveys solutions to the international Black maternal health crisis.

Prior to her current role, she served as a suburbs and breaking news reporter at the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., where she covered health, crime, and local government. As a digital and online editor at The Lighthouse | Black Girl Projects in Jackson, Miss., she wrote about reproductive justice and contributed to legislative research projects. A versatile storyteller, in addition to writing, she’s skilled in film and photography. 

Alexa got her start in journalism as a writer and designer for her middle school yearbook. She later became the first to report on race relations as a staff writer for her high school’s newspaper. In May 2019, she graduated cum laude with a B.A. in journalism from Howard University’s Cathy Hughes School of Communications.

While attending Howard, she founded the first student chapter of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting.

Alexa is a native of Pensacola, Fla. and an Austin, Tex. transplant where she was raised.

AWARDS & HONORS

White House Correspondents’ Association Scholar (2018)

FELLOWSHIPS

National Press Foundation (2022), Knight CUNYJ (2018), Discover The Unexpected (2017)