Asya Branch

Education Branch's family moved to Booneville, Mississippi the summer before she started kindergarten. After graduating from Booneville High School, Branch moved to Oxford, Mississippi, to attend the University of Mississippi. She graduated from the School of Journalism and New Media with a degree in Integrated Marketing Communications with an emphasis in Public relations and a minor in General Business. She has said that she hopes to work for a public relations firm or major corporation.

Pageantry Branch won her first pageant, Miss Historic Crossroads, in 2016. That same year, she competed in Miss Mississippi reaching 11th place.

As Miss Mississippi USA, Branch represented Mississippi at Miss USA 2020, becoming the first Mississippi representative to win Miss USA, as well as the first African-American woman to be crowned Miss Mississippi USA.

In May 2021, Branch represented the United States at Miss Universe 2020, at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood in Florida. Her national costume was based on a northern mockingbird, a state symbol of her home state of Mississippi. Out of 74 competitors, Branch was placed in the top 21. On November 29, 2021, she crowned her successor Elle Smith of Kentucky as Miss USA 2021 at the Paradise Cove Theater of the River Spirit Casino Resort in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Life after pageantry After competing in Miss Universe, Branch launched an initiative called “Finding Your Way: Empowering Children of Incarcerated Parents”, which aims to help families of incarcerated individuals. Part of this was "Love letters", which aims to increase communications between incarcerated family members and their children by donating stationery to inmates so they can communicate with their family. Branch said the program enabled an inmate to reconnect with her estranged son and that these stories show the success of the program. She hopes to bring her "Love letters" initiative nationwide and continus advocating for the dissolution of mandatory sentencing.