Cornelius 'Neil' Foote

Neil Foote, a member of the NABJ Hall of Fame, is Executive Director, Frisco Marketing Strategy for UNT’s Division of University Brand Strategy and Communications. Prior to this role, Foote taught a wide variety of classes at the university’s Mayborn School of Journalism and served as director of the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference and former advisor to the UNT’s NABJ student chapter. He also is author of “Principles of News (Kendall Hunt Publisher 2020) and is a contributor to the textbook, “Race, Gender, Class, and Media: Studying Mass Communication and Multiculturalism” (Kendall Hunt Publisher 2017).

Foote has worked at The Miami Herald, The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, the Belo Corporation, the Tom Joyner Morning Show and the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Foote also runs Foote Communications, a public relations, branding and communications firm. He launched Tom Joyner’s BlackAmericaWeb.com and developed and directed the public relations for the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show, and the Tom Joyner Foundation.

Foote is former treasurer, Commission on Public Relations Education; board chair for Forefront Living; a Dallas-based operator and developer of continuing care retirement communities and hospice care; board member and former board chair of the National Kidney Foundation Serving North Texas; president emeritus of the National Black Public Relations Society, Inc; and board member, Diversity Action Alliance, a coalition of public relations organizations; and a Life Trustee at The Lamplighter School.

Foote has a B.A. from Wesleyan University and holds a Master of Journalism from Northwestern University and an M.B.A from Southern Methodist University.