Lee Hood takes post at Loyola

Lee Hood

Lee Hood, (MA ’97, Ph.D. ’01), one of the faculty members most familiar to SJMC alums, is departing the program and her beloved Centennial State for the Midwest. She has taught broadcast news courses at the School for some 10 years. Hood is also the most well-known faculty member in Denver television newsrooms, having worked at four of the city’s five commercial stations.

“I’m going to Loyola University in Chicago, where I will teach in the School of Communication,” she said. “Don Heider (Ph.D. ’97) is the dean there. When I first started graduate school in the fall of 1992, I was Don’s teaching assistant, and I always enjoyed working with him and have kept in touch with him over the years. I’m excited about working with him again. When I was at Loyola for the job interview, I could tell that the faculty there really like Don and think he’s a great dean.”

Hood not only taught several hundred Broadcast News and Broadcast Production students, she’s managed to keep in touch with many of them. And ­she’s helped them connect with each other to create valuable career networks. “I’ve lost count of the number of semesters that I’ve worked with NewsTeam,” she said. “It is incredibly rewarding to teach, and it is also a great pleasure to keep up with students after they have graduated. That is why I have enjoyed keeping the NewsTeam alumni directory – at the moment on my Web site: spot.colorado.edu/~hood.” She said that NewsTeam alums need to stay tuned for plans on keeping the alumni directory and e-mail list alive after she heads east.

“My family and I are excited about our new adventure, and we keep hearing great things about Chicago as a city,” Hood said. Much of that Windy City info has been included in the dozens of messages Hood has received from former students. Valerie Castro (’06), a reporter at KOB-TV in Albuquerque, wrote: “Thanks for all of your hard work and dedication to the J-school. It’s instructors like you who really make a difference and teach us the skills that help us out in the real world.”

“Colorado and CU have been a very big part of my life, so from that standpoint it’s difficult to leave,” said Hood, a native of Kiowa. “I have cherished my time here. The students are terrific. I will certainly miss all my professional journalism colleagues in the Denver area, as well as my faculty colleagues at the SJMC. But I think it’s a good time to move on and to contribute to another program as it grows and develops, and I am looking forward to helping Don in that enterprise.”