Alisha Mess is a multimedia journalist, producer, and on-air host from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, focusing on stories that explore housing, culture, and local policy. Growing up in a neighborhood rich in culture and oral storytelling, she developed an early passion for listening to people's stories and understanding the community around her. Today, she brings that focus to her reporting, covering everything from neighborhood housing struggles to major policy decisions affecting people nationwide.
She carries this mission into her current role as the host of Streets of Change for In The Wake TV, an independent digital news outlet. Reporting on current events across the city, her work takes viewers straight to the center of local policy debates and city protests. Alisha leads each segment from start to finish, handling the research, field reporting, interviews, scripting, and editing.
She recently graduated from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism (2026), where she focused on local multimedia reporting and broadcast television news. While earning her MS degree, she served as the Co-Vice President of Columbia's NABJ Chapter, bringing in guest speakers from major newsrooms and organizing student-led events. Alongside helping members build community across the city, she produced weekly news stories from pitch to publication for the university's Video Newsroom—handling reporting, shooting, scripting, and editing for both broadcast and social media. Through this hands-on production work, she gained valuable on-camera experience delivering field reports, anchoring, and creating visual explainers.
While at Columbia, she served as Co-Vice President of the university's NABJ chapter, helping connect students with journalists and industry professionals through events, programming, and guest speaker discussions. She also produced weekly stories for Columbia's Video Newsroom, reporting and creating content for both broadcast and digital audiences while gaining experience in field reporting, anchoring, and visual explainers.
Before Columbia, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Design from The New School (2024), where she served as a lead radio producer for WNSR New School Radio. There, she reported on culture, politics, and local news, building a strong foundation in audio storytelling and investigative reporting. Her production work ranged from a deep-dive audio feature on the impact of police gang databases in Black and Brown communities to a cultural segment exploring how pop icons broke racial color barriers in the music industry in the early 1980s.
When she's not reporting on the news in front of the camera, Alisha brings her passion for culture to live entertainment spaces. Looking to expand her background in television and behind-the-scenes production, she served as an AV intern at the Barclays Center. There, she worked in the control room during concerts, New York Liberty games, and the 2025 NBA Draft, helping run the live broadcasts and manage the digital displays for the arena's massive crowds.
