Alumni Spotlight: Danielle Alfano Roth '07

This month’s alumni spotlight is Mrs. Danielle Alfano Roth, a 2007 graduate of Notre Dame High School. While attending Notre Dame, Danielle was an active member of the swimming and track teams.

Upon graduation, Danielle attended King College, now known as King University, from 2007-2011, and majored in the field of athletic training. Her reasoning for selecting this college was because it was the only one that would offer her a scholarship to be on not one, but two, sports teams. At that time in her life, she was just not ready to have to make a choice between swimming and track and was able to participate in both at the college.

When asked about favorite memories from college, Danielle said one of her favorites was being voted Most Athletic her senior year as well as being a part of the first team from the school to ever qualify for an NCAA national championship. During the championship, they traveled to Louisville and had to actually run in the snow -one memory she will not forget!

While attending King College, Danielle had to develop a level of personal independence because she was so far away from home and family. She stated she did make mistakes but learned from them as well and was actually able to decide who she wanted to be because of them. Three words to describe her college years would be chaotic, formative and broke!

After college graduation, she joined a professional track team in Syracuse, New York. She lived there for one year and competed in the 1500M. While there, she worked as a server at the Funny Bone Comedy Club. This was an easy choice for her since she basically grew up in the comedy club business. This job ultimately rejuvenated her love for that industry and in time, she moved back home to Chattanooga and started managing the family business known as The Comedy Catch. She currently co-owns and manages The Comedy Catch since her parents have retired and her hope is to keep the family legacy going strong. It was actually a plot twist of events for Danielle because she always thought she would steer clear of the business and not follow her parent’s footsteps. She originally felt it necessary to find her own career. However, her focus changed and she realized her knowledge and experience she gained from growing up around the business would be wasted if she did not follow that path after all.

Danielle’s advice to students today would be that it is ok to go into college not knowing what you want to be or have a major set in stone. Spend a year getting to know yourself in a new environment and give yourself some grace and make those mistakes but make sure you learn from them. As far as her own college self, she would tell herself to take more business classes and trust yourself because it will all work out.

As for being involved with the King College community, Danielle is proud and honored to say she was just inducted into the King College Hall of Fame in October of this year. College is such a large important time and most grow into adulthood there so giving back to the place that gave to you is important.

On a personal note, she says something many would be surprised to learn about her is that ninety-nine percent of the time she has no idea what she is doing! Her favorite book is the Blood and Ash series while her favorite podcasts are Crime Junkies, and Nateland among others.  In closing, Danielle likes to live by the mottos ‘Give yourself the grace you would give your best friend” and “We will cross that bridge when it’s on fire”

Danielle currently resides in Chattanooga with her husband and two beautiful children.