Indeed, there is a certain unflappable quality about Alsobrooks, a quiet confidence that seems to stem from the nurturing environment in which she was raised, a “quintessential American family” with loving parents and an older sister.
Her father held down two jobs: in the mornings, he delivered newspapers. Later in the day, “he changed into his suit and would go sell insurance,” she told NBC News. “After losing his job, he became a car salesman.”
Her mother was a receptionist, employed over the years in local government and hospital settings. “I would go to the ER and wait for her to get off work,” Alsobrooks recalls.
The devoted parents stressed education and exposed Alsobrooks and her sister to fine dining, art and culture, while instilling values such as religious faith and telling them that nothing was beyond their capabilities.
“We had so many outlets,” Alsobrooks recalled. “Dance, voice lessons and children’s improvisational theater. Church.”
In the ninth grade, after meeting peers involved in citywide student government, she was impressed and decided to run for treasurer.
“I had a real campaign. My campaign volunteers were my parents. They took me to the toy store, and I handed out candy wrapped in play money,” she laughs.
Alsobrooks won her very first election, then another as the student group’s president. Public service has been her calling ever since.
A few years later, Alsobrooks said her parents “cleared out their retirement accounts, budgeted and shared one car,” to pay her Duke University tuition. She later attended the University of Maryland School of Law and then honed her legal skills as a law clerk in the Howard County Circuit Court, and later the Baltimore City Circuit Court.
A pivotal position for Alsobrooks was becoming an assistant state’s attorney in Prince George’s County, and the first full-time prosecutor to handle domestic violence cases.