Courtesy of Blayne Alexander
Childhood trips from Oklahoma City to Atlanta to visit family friends made a powerful impression on Blayne Alexander.
“Driving through Midtown and downtown, which of course back then was nowhere near as developed as it is now, but it was still impressive compared to the Oklahoma City skyline that I knew, I always in my mind [thought] ‘Gosh I would love to live in Atlanta,’” she remembers. “And it’s funny, my dad actually found this essay that I wrote years ago [when] I was in middle school maybe, about having a goal of being a journalist living in Atlanta.”
Today Alexander has manifested it all. Currently in her third season as a Dateline NBC correspondent, she has been a journalist for nearly 20 years. In October, she and her husband, Jay Bailey, president and CEO of the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs (RICE), will celebrate 10 years of marriage. The couple, who met in Atlanta, has two daughters, Sage, 5, and Skylar, 2.
Active across Atlanta’s civic and cultural circles, Alexander’s given the commencement speech at Agnes Scott College, run local marathons, and been a fixture at the annual UNCF Atlanta Mayor’s Masked Ball, which raises scholarship money for HBCU students.
Courtesy of Blayne Alexander
Courtesy of Blayne Alexander
Growing up near Oklahoma City, she saw firsthand how national coverage of the 1995 bombing shaped her community; It’s what inspired her to become a journalist.
After graduating from Duke University, she worked in Washington, D.C. as a desk assistant at NBC News before landing her first reporting job in 2009 for Augusta’s WRDW-TV. Two years later, she moved to Atlanta to join 11 Alive where she stayed until 2017. She then returned to D.C. to become a correspondent for NBC News Channel, which supplies reporting to NBC affiliate stations nationwide. In 2019, she joined NBC News as an Atlanta-based correspondent.
“When I [first] came here, I was 24,” Alexander recalls. “I was just really moved by how many young people … had an entrepreneurial spirit … I met friends who had nonprofits. I had friends who would volunteer … Friends who were working 9-to-5s building businesses on the side. And we were all in our 20s.”
And then there was Atlanta’s history.
“It will never be old to me that this was the cradle of the civil rights movement,” she says. “ … Ambassador Andrew Young has become a dear friend of ours. My daughters have met him. They rode on his scooter a few weeks back. These are true giants—people who changed the world—especially for people who look like me.”
She also notes other civil rights leaders from Atlanta she admires, including the late Rep. John Lewis and the late Revs. C.T. Vivian and Joseph E. Lowery.
Courtesy of Blayne Alexander
While Alexander covered major stories prior to joining Dateline NBC in 2024—including the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2020 presidential election—she says this new chapter at Dateline, where she covers horrific crimes, has required a far more delicate approach
“I consider it a true honor any time there are family members [of victims] who choose to speak with me, who choose to speak with Dateline, who willingly come in, spend hours of their time, and sit across from me, and recount what is undoubtedly the hardest period of their lives,” she says of the primetime series, now entering its 35th season. The new season premieres September 25.
“The fact that they trusted me with their story, with their loved one’s story, that means a lot,” she continues. “I think one of the things that makes us stand out is that we center the victims and their stories. In so many ways, we are talking about what it looked like for a family to get justice, or what it looked like for someone who has done something to be brought to justice. And in that way, we’re the advocates for the victims. We’re the advocates for these families. We’re the advocates for the people who are feeling the ripple of the crime, whatever that may be.”
Balancing work and motherhood with a career that requires emotional fortitude and a lot of travel is only possible, Alexander shares, because of her “village,” which includes her supportive husband and parents who now live in Atlanta. She also, whenever possible, includes her daughters in her work life. Sage, for example, was present for Alexander’s interview with Atlanta magazine.
Courtesy of Blayne Alexander
“When I do travel, it’s not just ‘oh, Mommy is gone, and she’ll be back in a week or whatever.’ It’s ‘Mommy is a journalist. Mommy goes to help people tell their stories. Mommy helps people understand what’s going on in the world,’” she explains. “I think helping my daughters understand what I do, and understand that I have a career with a sense of purpose, is something that certainly makes a big difference.”
In her absence, Alexander FaceTimes with her family and leaves behind nightly “Mommy notes,” which Sage reads to Sklyar. When she is at home, Alexander says she makes sure she’s fully present by decompressing after each story before seeing her daughters.
And, she gets to do it all from the city she loves.
“Atlanta just has a special place in my heart,” she says. “ … This is our home. And I think that one of the beautiful parts about being able to be part of Dateline is that I didn’t have to leave.”
Dateline NBC kicks off its 35th season on Friday, September 25 at 9 p.m. ET before streaming on Peacock the next day.
