Retha Hill, an award-winning journalist, entrepreneur and professor at the Cronkite School, will be inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Hall of Fame.
Hill is one of seven Black journalists and communicators who were recognized by NABJ for their contributions to the news and media industries. The inductees will be honored at the organization’s Hall of Fame Induction and Luncheon on Aug. 2 in Chicago.
“I appreciate NABJ’s recognition of my work. I’ve been a member of NABJ since my senior year in college and was the president of three chapters, and this means so much to me. When I first left the Washington Post newsroom to help launch the company’s first online publication, back in the stone age of digital media in 1995, a lot of people thought I had lost my mind,” Hill said. “NABJ gave me the opportunity to conduct training workshops in those early years to encourage our members to explore the opportunities available with online media and to get in on the ground floor of a new type of media. For that, I thank NABJ for recognizing the importance of innovation in our industry.”
Hill is a professor of practice and executive director of the New Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab, which allows journalism and computer science students to create products such as virtual, augmented and mixed reality apps and content, web applications, news game tools and social media tools, and mobile apps for media clients. The entrepreneurship side of the lab enables students to create their own media companies and products.
“Retha Hill has long been recognized as an innovator and important voice in journalism. She continues to evolve and expand her expertise and remains one of most relevant and respected voices in the industry, most recently in the area of artificial intelligence,” said Cronkite School Dean Battinto L. Batts Jr. “We are very fortunate to have her as a member of our faculty at Cronkite and celebrate this honor with her.”
Hill joined the Cronkite School in 2007 after eight years at BET, where she was vice president for content for BET Interactive. Prior to joining BET, she was executive producer for special projects at washingtonpost.com and was a founding editor of Washington Post Newsweek Interactive.