Alexis Thrower, PhD
Alexis Thrower, PhD, is an award-winning communications practitioner, educator, and career development strategist dedicated to bridging communication gaps and advancing equitable professional development. She specializes in helping individuals and organizations strengthen career readiness, leadership capacity, and inclusive communication strategies. Her work is grounded in a deep commitment to educational access and equity, with a focus on ensuring that communication is clear, intentional, and empowering across diverse academic and professional environments.
Dr. Thrower has long held a passion for higher education, shaped by an early academic journey that began with dual enrollment courses while still in high school. Initially aspiring to become a pediatrician, she later discovered her true strength and interest lay outside the sciences and within communication. Entering college with nearly a year of prerequisites completed, she experienced a pivotal turning point in a public speaking course, where she won a speech showcase competition and realized the power of her voice to inform, inspire, and influence audiences. This defining moment, which she also reflects on in her book Figuring Sht Out: The Guidebook for Landing a Job within Your Field of Study Fresh Out of College*, led her to double major in communications and journalism and ultimately pursue graduate study at Johns Hopkins University, where she earned a Master of Arts in Communication and Media Studies.
Following her graduate studies, Dr. Thrower built a career in higher education and communications, teaching online courses in public speaking and communication studies while continuing to work in media and university communications. Having completed her master’s degree in 2019 while working full-time in television news, she transitioned into online education at the onset of the pandemic, meeting a critical need for virtual instruction. This experience shaped her teaching philosophy and deepened her commitment to accessible, student-centered learning. Today, she leverages her background as a journalist, educator, and researcher to help individuals and organizations identify communication gaps, strengthen professional development pathways, and achieve their goals through equity-focused communication strategies.
• Inclusive Excellence in College Teaching Certificate
• Health and Wellness Coach
• Executive Education - Women and Leadership Certificate
• California State University, Los Angeles - B.A. in Broadcast Journalism
• California State University, Los Angeles - B.A. in Communication
• Johns Hopkins University Advanced Academic Programs - MA
• Claremont Graduate University - PhD
• Miss Doctorate of California by the Miss United Crown of America Association
• Speech showcase winner
• Multi-award-winning communications practitioner with awards for publications and collaterals
• Internal communications newsletter
• Digital Publications
• Juneteenth Jam partnership supporting Miss Juneteenth pageant panel member
• Colorectal Cancer Alliance
• Claremont Graduate University
• Forever Friends LA
• Vine Life Christian Fellowship
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Have your values. What are your values? Because your values are your guiding light, but they're also your grounding point. When you have clear values, you're going to align with people and organizations that also share those values so that you can do great work, but you will also keep your moral compass. If something is not right, you can pinpoint what it is in that situation that doesn't work for you. It's not to say that you're not going to have disagreements, or you're going to appreciate or like everything and how everything is done, but at the core, what are your values, and what are the heels you're willing to die on? If it means making sure that the work moves forward with or without you. Because at the end, whether it goes on with or without you, you trust that if it wasn't meant for you, it wasn't meant for you, but everything that is meant for you, that does align with your values, it will be attracted to you, and it'll come its way to you.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think the biggest challenge now, and I think many communications practitioners will say this, we have to always explain the work we do. We spend a lot of time explaining the work, rather than being able to do the work. We can only imagine how much traction we would get if we can just do our thing. I think people sometimes only see the value of what we do when it's an emergency, and then we respond reactively and not proactively. So when things go awry, it's very easy for you to feel like, oh, we need to get somebody in who's going to address this, but no, the piece that should have been in place from the very beginning was the communication strategy, and we can prepare. We have contingency plans for the goods, for the bads, for the ugly, and we can be proactive when we're proactive about it. I think sometimes people struggle to bring that piece into the fold in the beginning, whether it be because of budgetary constraints, or they feel like there's no real emergency at the moment, there's no need for it. But when you're constantly explaining what you're doing, it can be a challenge, because a lot of people are resistant to what's unfamiliar. I'm seeing that in all of my roles in what I've done, whether you work in TV news and somebody doesn't like what you're saying because of the station that you're on, or when I'd worked where the department had only been established for maybe 2 or 3 years, so when you don't have a lot of skin in the game, people question why you're there. I'm currently working full-time at a department where we do a lot of equity work, but in the climate that we're in now, a lot of people are saying, why are they still here? Being a newer division or department with people who don't really see the value of what you do to best reflect and uplift marginalized voices and communities, it can be a challenge, absolutely.