American Conservatism 101 Featuring John Hood

About John Hood

John Hood is president of the John William Pope Foundation, a Raleigh-based grantmaker. Hood also serves on the board of the John Locke Foundation, the state policy think tank he helped found in 1989 and led as its president for more than two decades.

Since 1986, Hood has written a syndicated column on politics and public policy for North Carolina newspapers. It currently appears regularly in the Winston-Salem Journal, Greensboro News & Record, Wilmington Star-News, and newspapers in 50 other communities. A frequent radio and television commentator, Hood is the author of seven nonfiction books on such subjects as business, advertising, public policy, and political history. His most-recent books are Mountain Folk (2021) and Forest Folk (2022), both historical-fantasy novels set in early America.

A former Bradley Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, Hood teaches at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. His articles have appeared in magazines such as Readers’ Digest, The New Republic, National Review, Military History, and Reason as well as newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, and The Seattle Times. He also spent 25 years on statewide television, appearing on the weekly programs “N.C. Spin” and “North Carolina This Week.”

At Locke, Hood created the E.A. Morris Fellowship for Emerging Leaders, which prepares young North Carolinians for leadership roles in the public and private sectors. He also serves on the faculty and as board chair of the NC Institute of Political Leadership; as co-chair of the North Carolina Leadership Forum, based at Duke University; as vice-chair of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal; and on the boards of directors of the State Policy Network, the Student Free Press Association, and the Carolina Liberty Foundation.

Hood received his BA in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he serves on the board of North Carolina Public Radio (WUNC) and the foundation board of the Hussman School of Journalism and Media. He earned a MA in liberal studies and a graduate certificate in nonprofit management from UNC-Greensboro A native of Mecklenburg County, Hood now resides in Wake County with his wife, two sons, and a stepdaughter.