Blazing Your Own Path— Jessica Byrd ’09

This article was originally published in the Spring 2022 edition of the Chatham Recorder Alumni Magazine. To view the full magazine, click here.

It was at Chatham that Jessica Byrd ’09 first learned about Toni Morrison, in Dr. Anissa Wardi’s seminar devoted to the novelist, and it had a profound impact. “I always come back to Morrison’s advice that if there isn’t a book you want to read, you should write it. And in many ways, in 2015, there wasn’t a political organization that was serving Black women and Black moments at the level that I thought was required, and I was able to start that,” she says. 

Byrd is talking about Three Point Strategies, the radical, Black feminist political consulting firm that she founded in 2015. Three Point isn’t your typical political organization. From their website: Three Point works at the intersection of electoral politics and social justice with candidates and organizations across the country seeking electoral power for transformative change. A lot of people claim this, but we actually do things differently. We are experts in our work while innovating and treating every single partner with love and respect. It’s an approach that has won Byrd national accolades: in 2016, she was named the January “Woman to Watch” by Essence Magazine, one of “12 New Faces of Black Leadership” by Time Magazine, and Rolling Stone named her one of the most influential millennials shaping the 2016 election.

But first, there was Chatham. 

At Chatham, Byrd immersed herself in leadership roles, serving as class president for her first two years and on the Chatham Student Government executive board junior and senior years, and in politics, working for the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics for each of her four years. She also joined the Black Student Union and helped to develop a month called “Women of Color Herstory Month,” during which women of color leaders across the Pittsburgh region visited Chatham. 

Byrd took a leave of absence during her senior year to join the Obama for America staff, and particularly remembers the summer of 2008, which she spent in Cleveland, Ohio. “Our campaign office was always buzzing with energy and joy, and there was a really intergenerational, multiracial group of volunteers who would make food for the office. We’d all go out canvassing together, and we really built a community that was connected to the hope and joy of working toward the shared goal,” she says. “It was so, so much hard work, but I remember on election night the feeling that I was crossing the finish line with these people that I had built such a beautiful relationship with, and there is nothing better than feeling like you’ve achieved something that cannot only contribute in a meaningful way but with people who were equally empowered in the process.” 

“Working on campaigns and being in the community working politically was a huge part of my life when I was at Chatham, and it really meant that by the time I was graduating at 22, I had a lot of experience working towards a goal in a political community organization,” she says. 

Following her graduation from Chatham, Byrd moved to Washington, DC and began working for the Obama administration in the National Service Agency. “I was the special assistant to the head of that agency at 22. It was a completely transformative experience for me to see how the government of our country happens from DC, so I learned an incredible amount,” she says. A year later, Byrd began working for Emily’s List, the nation’s largest political action committee for women running for office. Over the next five years, she built a women of color candidate recruitment program, traveling across the country training women to run for office as well as strategizing on their campaigns. “From dogcatcher to county commissioner to state representative to mayor, I was working to identify committed, caring, brilliant women who wanted to serve their communities,” she says. After five years with Emily’s List, Byrd left to found Three Point Strategies. 

Three Point Strategies was founded to create a political consulting firm that would be able to meet the transformational moment around racial justice in this country. Over the past seven years, the firm has worked with candidates including Stacey Abrams, Ayanna Pressley, and Black women mayors across the country. 

“I feel like every day that I show up at Three Point Strategies, I’m working towards bringing my values forward into our work, and never settling for what other people say we should be doing or think is possible for us,” says Byrd. 

Byrd considers her job that of part business-owner—“consistently working to lead the team, making smart financial decisions, and ensuring that the folks who work at Three Point have a solid and healthy work environment”—and part rapid response. “Depending on the campaigns we’re working on, or the organizations we’re working with, any time the political environment shifts or there is an important event in their community, we are working with them to respond. And so my work changes on a day-to-day basis: There are days when I’m writing and drafting remarks or a campaign plan, and there are also days when I’m training or working with candidates to solve a problem, and I would say most weeks are also spending time with my team really being able to plan Black Campaign School and the other projects we’re working on,” she says.

Black Campaign School is a Three Point Strategies project about which Byrd is particularly excited. “It’s an opportunity for Black candidates from all over the country to join together in the process of talking about strategy, learning about their communities, and engaging in debate. We are expanding that program over the next several years and are really proud to be a learning space for
people who are interested in serving their communities,” she says. 

“As I prepare for giving the commencement address at Chatham, it really feels like this beautiful full circle, of leaving the campus at 22 and feeling like I had an exciting opportunity but didn’t understand how I could have a career. And now that I have a career, I realize that so much about what I wanted to do then was about creating my own path. I feel really privileged I was asked to give the commencement address, and I feel profoundly grateful that the years since I’ve been at Chatham have been full of lessons, experiences, and opportunities for me to grow, and be a person who can lead a firm in this political climate.” 

I ask Byrd if she has ever considered running for office herself. “I’m asked that a lot,” she laughs. “I think I am a strong behind-the-scenes person, and I really feel like elective leadership is specifically for people who want to govern full time. While I am not closing any doors, I know for sure that right now my best and highest use is to help really awesome Black women get elected all over the country. But if and when the time comes, I’d definitely consider it.”   

(Editor’s note: Jessica Byrd received an honorary Doctorate of Public Service at the spring 2022 commencement.)