2025 Dorothy Height Distinguished Alumni Award Honoree: Alycia Michelle Guichard (BS ’01)

Alycia M. Guichard (BS ’01, Media, Culture, and Communication) has leveraged her tenacity and her NYU Steinhardt degree to create a life and career focused on law, leadership, and the empowerment of others.

Growing up in the New York City foster care system, Guichard always had the dream to attend NYU, even during a tumultuous childhood that included homelessness, attending multiple middle and high schools, and not graduating on schedule. 

After beginning her academic journey at SUNY Westchester Community College—where she worked at the college radio station and covered the president’s office for the school newspaper—she earned the opportunity to transfer to Steinhardt and the unique Media, Culture, and Communication (MCC) program. Guichard also received a minor in sociology from NYU College of Arts & Science because she “cared about people in general and wanted to think deeply about why the world is the way it is.”

“The team at Steinhardt really embraced and supported me, and I still have a relationship with my mentors, like [Professor of MCC] Deborah Borisoff, who invites me back to talk to her undergrad and grad classes,” says Guichard. “Steinhardt and the people in it gave me the power to get to where I am today.”

After graduating from NYU, Guichard attended Fordham University School of Law on a full-tuition scholarship from the American Bar Association. Her intent was to see how she could change the foster care system and better support young people at risk. While at Fordham, she worked as a summer law clerk with now-Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

After obtaining her JD, Guichard became a graduate and clinical teaching fellow at Georgetown University Law Center, marking the first time a Fordham Law graduate received this role. Afterward, she worked as New Jersey’s assistant deputy public defender for six years while also holding various positions at Rutgers University School of Law–Newark, including a visiting clinical faculty position in the Child Advocacy Clinic and leadership positions in the Office of Minority Student Programs and Externships.

“When I moved back to New Jersey, I wanted to help kids,” says Guichard. “As the Assistant Deputy Public Defender, I represented children who suffered abuse and neglect, and I was also consulting with [global nonprofit organization] Street Law, trying to help people understand that kids in foster care or those at risk need lots of support, including legal, educational, and financial help.”

While speaking about her life story at the Street Law Gala in 2012 in Washington, D.C., Guichard met John Frantz, then–Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Verizon, who invited her to come speak to students in the company’s Pro Bono Law Program. Guichard was hired in 2015 to revamp the Pro Bono Program, and the next year she was brought on board full-time as Staff Counsel for the Product & New Business Group.

“I was in that role, reviewing products from inception to marketplace, for about a year before I was promoted to Product and Marketing Counsel for Verizon Business Group,” says Guichard. Today, she serves as Emerging Technology Counsel for Verizon Global Services, where she advises senior executives across the Corporate Systems Group and Network Systems on legal strategy related to artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, cybersecurity, audit risk, and regulatory compliance—ensuring innovation is pursued with integrity, accountability, and foresight.

“Life has tested me, stretched me, and carried me through the unexpected—each experience shaping my resilience and deepening my gratitude for humanity, for the goodness in those who built bridges for me to cross,” says Guichard. “I am where I am today because extraordinary people chose to pour their time, wisdom, and belief into me.”

Guichard has also earned her Master of Laws in Advocacy with Distinction from Georgetown Law and an MBA from Strayer University. She is currently writing a memoir—a powerful and uplifting account of her life, designed to inspire others to realize their potential, pursue their goals, overcome obstacles, and achieve lasting success. Guided by her calling to uplift and equip others, Guichard founded AMG EmPowers—offering interactive workshops, mentorship programs, and speaking engagements that help individuals tap into their inner strength, build resilience, and transform aspirations into reality.