Alia Pharr
Alia Pharr staff image
Alia Pharr covers taxation and infrastructure in metro Atlanta. Before joining The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she worked at daily newspapers in Texas and Connecticut and served in the Peace Corps in El Salvador. Her work has received awards from the Society for Feature Journalists and Best of the West. A native of Prince George's County, Maryland, she holds a bachelor’s degree from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, where she also minored in Spanish. She speaks and writes fluently in Spanish.
Latest from Alia Pharr
Gwinnett County Commissioner Matthew Holtkamp

Ethics complaint dismissed against Gwinnett commissioner in bus video

Wanda Sims Watters stands near where her childhood home was at 205 Elizabeth Street in Decatur on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. The once thriving Black neighborhood was destroyed in waves from the 1940s-1970s through eminent domain for government housing, facilities and “urban renewal.” (Ben Gray for the AJC)

Metro Atlanta governments take up reparations amid national challenges

ICE related protest in woodstock, Georgia

Weather postpones nearly all of Saturday’s anti-ICE protests in metro Atlanta

Fulton County Jail plan

Fulton commission rejects staff tax hike proposal for jail improvements

Doris Sims Johnson leads a news conference on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, asking the city of Decatur to grant a historic designation to the vacant land on Electric Avenue where the school district is proposing to build an early learning center. The open area was part of the historically Black neighborhood of Beacon Hill. (Ben Gray for the AJC)

Activists request historic status for Decatur land to stop new school

Report: Fulton’s past harms to Black residents are worth billions

Report: Fulton’s past harms to Black residents are worth billions

Fulton budget hearing

Fulton commission tees up budget vote that could increase property tax rate

Waterworks Village

Atlanta gets $75M in federal funds for revitalization projects

Nicole Dwyer

Fulton commission approves reduced contract with LifeLine Animal Project

Fatal mauling causes animal control changes in Fulton County

Fatal mauling causes animal control changes in Fulton County