Yamiche Alcindor

Early life and education

Alcindor grew up in Miami, the child of Haitian immigrants. During high school, she worked as an intern for both the Westside Gazette and the Miami Herald. She went on to Georgetown University, graduating in 2009 with a bachelor’s in English and government and a minor in African-American studies, and joined the sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Her other internships included The Seattle Times, the Miami Herald again, Botswana’s Mmegi, and The Washington Post. Inspired by journalist Gwen Ifill and the news coverage of Emmett Till, she aimed to become a civil rights reporter. In 2015, she completed a master’s in broadcast news and documentary filmmaking at New York University.

Career

Alcindor's first full-time job was at Newsday, where she covered the 2010 Haiti earthquake. In December 2011, she became a multimedia reporter for USA Today, covering national breaking news such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the killing of Trayvon Martin, the Ferguson unrest, and the Baltimore protests. She began contributing to NBC News and MSNBC as a guest in 2013, appearing on programs including Morning Joe and The Rachel Maddow Show.

She left USA Today in November 2015 to work for The New York Times as a national political reporter, covering the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. She produced the documentary The Trouble with Innocence (2015) and appeared in the 2018 series The Fourth Estate. In January 2018, she became White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour, covering the Trump presidency. She moderated the sixth Democratic debate in the 2020 election season.

President Donald Trump repeatedly insulted her at White House press conferences. She received the 2020 Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage. In May 2021, she became moderator of Washington Week. She left PBS NewsHour in January 2022 and began as a Washington correspondent for NBC News in March 2022.

She made her last appearance moderating Washington Week on February 24, 2023, to focus on NBC duties and writing her memoir.

Awards and honors

She was nominated for a Shorty Award in the Journalist category in 2016. The next year, she won an award at Syracuse University's Toner Prize ceremony in tribute to Gwen Ifill. She ranked number 13 on The Root 100 in 2017 and number 5 in 2020.

Did You Know?

• Alcindor is fluent in Haitian Creole.
• In April 2023, she revealed she was expecting a baby boy after years of IVF treatment.