Meet Roxanne Alexander | United States of America’s Ms Arizona 2023 & Director of Operations in Wealth Management

We had the good fortune of connecting with Roxanne Alexander and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Roxanne, what is the most important factor behind your success?
The most important factor behind my success is that I’ve learned to always keep trying and never let fear stand in my way. As a young girl I was always taught that I can do anything that I put my mind to. So, I apply that and think about that every time I take on a new task and adventure. By believing in that, I have been able to achieve my bachelors and masters degree in Business Administration, achieve my dream job in operations in wealth management, and become United States of America’s Ms Arizona 2023. When becoming Ms Arizona, I had to create a platform. Little did I realize that I already had a platform that I was working towards without even realizing it. My platform is Service Animals for Unseen Mental Health Disabilities. I am striving to be an advocate for service animals and for people who suffer from these unseen disabilities. Prior to the pageant, I had already started training my own personal service animal, I would share with people in my community about our training when asked and work in public on my service dog’s training. Therefore when creating my platform, it was a no-brainer on what I should do to help advocate on a larger scale. If I had let fear stand in my way, I would not have started my service animal training journey because of the fear of what people would think of me with having a service animal. And now, with taking the chance, working towards the pageant and sharing my story, I was able to become this year’s Ms Arizona and advocate for others on a topic that is not common for people to speak on and be an advocate and resource for my community.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am the director of operations in a wealth management firm in Phoenix. I have worked really hard to obtain my position. While getting my bachelors degree I was still unsure of what I wanted to do professionally until I started in a wealth management firm. I started as a client care associate then was able to move up in the company to do operations. Once I started in operations, I realized how much I loved that line of work. It was a learning experience everyday, it was consistent work but also everyday was different with tasks. It really allowed me to be creative and constantly learning. I realized I wanted to get my masters degree to be able to advance into higher positions in the wealth management and finance industry so I set time aside to work full time and go to school online for my MBA. Working full time and getting my masters degree was extremely tough but it helped teach me how to manage my time better. Overall that ended up helping me with my career and being able to take on more tasks within my role and really grow to achieve my dream job. I am very proud to be a woman in wealth management. I am proud of the work I have put in to help break the stigma of women in the wealth management field. On top of that, I have been able to learn how to balance a full time career and work on my platform and in my community as Ms Arizona. Becoming Ms Arizona took a lot of work. I worked with my coach weekly, I was in the gym every day training and practicing my stage routines, and I was in my community volunteering. Being the United States of America’s Ms Arizona 2023 means so much to me and I am very thankful to be on this journey representing Arizona. I hope that I get to make an impact on my community and show young women that you can be beauty and brains, that you can be anything you want to be, and to show the community that its okay to speak up about struggle with Mental Health.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love having friends and family visit. My favorite thing to do is plan out their stay and showing them different parts of Arizona. On a week long trip, I’d show them around the historic area of Old Town Scottsdale for shopping, take them hiking through camelback and tom’s thumb. Then I’d take them to see Sedona and hike through the red rocks. Next on our list would be to see Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. I feel like it’s so important to show people the different parts of. the state and how beautiful Arizona is. For places to eat, drink and hangout, I love supporting small and family owned businesses. However, it is also fun to take them to speakeasy’s and upscale restaurants that the city has to offer. My friends and I love to try new places throughout the valley.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are two people who deserve recognition in my success, my dad and my pageant coach. Both have taught me that if I apply myself and work hard that I can achieve anything. My dad has always been a role model to me because I’ve seen how hard he’s worked in his career, I’ve learned from his work ethic, and how he’s always been open to take chances to grow and apply himself for the goals he has. My pageant coach, Maria, took a chance on me being a first time pageant girl and helped me to realize that my biggest competitor is myself.. She helped me dive into opportunities and grow personally and professionally as well. She taught me that my mindset is everything when entering a new adventure and to never self doubt what I am capable of or who I am. Her advice on my pageant interview day was to stay authentic to myself and people will see me and appreciate me for who I am. I will forever be thankful for both my dad and my pageant coach. They both have made big impacts on helping me be who I am today and get to where I am now in my life.

Instagram: @roxander11

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roxanne-alexander

Image Credits
Michael Franco