Alison Morris Roslyn
Alison Morris Roslyn has built her career as a journalist, spending two decades working in news, including at CNBC in Paris, KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh and Fox 5 in New York. She’s covered the Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup & the White House. Most recently, she launched the streaming network, NBC News Now.
Along the way, she wrote for the Wall Street Journal and the Hartford Courant, became a sommelier and beat breast cancer.
Now, she’s launching a second career as an author, using her writing skills to support nonprofit organizations. Her first book, Henry the Rockhouse Pelican, is about not letting your fears keep you from the people and things you love, and supports the The Rockhouse Foundation in Jamaica.
We asked Alison to share details of her new book and this wonderful organization.
Jamaican children at the Sav Inclusive School read Henry the Rockhouse Pelican
Congrats on the new book and second career launch! How did Henry the Rockhouse Pelican come about?
My husband, Scott, and I were married at the Rockhouse Hotel in Negril, Jamaica in 2013. We’ve been going to the Rockhouse for almost 15 years and start each morning at the hotel with Fanette Johnson’s yoga classes by the sea. There was a young pelican who would come and sit on the rock by Fanette’s class regularly. She named him Henry. The story is based on a real rescue that happened in 2017 when Henry got stuck on a fish hook and our friend, Bally, the head groundskeeper, saved him.
Fanette told me the story and I remember thinking, “this has to become a children’s book!” I scribbled the story on cocktail napkins and barf bags on a flight home from Jamaica in 2018 and worked over the last few years with an editor and our amazing illustrator, Rachel Moss, to finally bring the book to life.
What a wonderful story! What is your favorite moment in the book?
I love when Henry comes back to the Rockhouse Hotel after some time away. He returned on a day when Fanette was feeling sad and he brightened her day. That really happened and is such a strong reminder that we can make other people’s lives better—often without even realizing it—if we keep showing up with warmth and kindness.
What is The Rockhouse Foundation and how did you come to work with them?
Scott and I had been going to the Rockhouse for years and were so moved by The Rockhouse Foundation’s mission: transforming the places where Jamaica’s children learn and supporting the great people who teach them. Since its creation in 2004, The Foundation has invested over $10 million building, expanding, and renovating six Negril area public schools and the Negril Community Library.
Most recently, they conceived and built Savanna-la-Mar Inclusive Academy (Sav Inclusive), where children with and without disabilities are taught side-by-side in a full-inclusion setting. It’s an incredible place that educates and values children of all abilities and needs. They’re working to expand the school through high school, and we’re hoping the book helps them get there.
We just got back from Jamaica this June, where I was able to read Henry The Rockhouse Pelican to the kids and send each of them home with their own copy. It was an amazing day full of so much love and excitement.
Incredible! What’s next for you?
Writing is my first true love and I hope it will be a leading character in the next chapter of my life. I beat breast cancer in 2024 and had a much more positive experience than I expected. I’m currently building a nonprofit to provide women with the key holistic and integrative services that helped get me through my diagnosis and treatment: yoga, breathwork, meditation, mentorship and group therapy–all for free. We’re also building a website full of trusted resources to help women get reliable access to the information they need when they’re dealing with breast cancer. As a lifelong journalist, I’ve realized how important it is to do quality research, ask the right questions, and advocate for yourself to have a better breast cancer outcome.
I’d also like to write a book about the valuable things I learned when I was sick, so I can reach as many women as possible. I was treated at Weill Cornell in NYC and am involved with their mentorship program. I see how many women are diagnosed at just one hospital in one city and it’s overwhelming. There are so many people who need help, support, and community.
More from The North County Moms:
Meet an Author: Ross Mathews of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno & the Drew Barrymore Show
Meet a Mom — Ylleya Fields, Author of Princess Cupcake Jones
