John Hood is president of the John William Pope Foundation, a Raleigh-based grantmaker that supports public policy organizations, educational institutions, arts and cultural programs, and humanitarian relief in North Carolina and beyond.
Hood also served as chairman of the board at the John Locke Foundation from 2015-2021. Hood helped found Locke in 1989 and served as its president from 1995 to 2014.
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, Asheville Citizen-Times, Wilmington Star-News, and newspapers in 50 other communities. Hood is a frequent commentator for radio and television stations and teaches at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.
Hood is the author of eight books, the latest of which is a Revolutionary War-themed historical-fantasy novel entitled Mountain Folk (2021). Hood’s other books include Catalyst: Jim Martin and the Rise of North Carolina Republicans (2015), Our Best Foot Forward: An Investment Plan for North Carolina’s Economic Recovery (2012), Selling the Dream: Why Advertising is Good Business (2005), Investor Politics (2001), The Heroic Enterprise: Business and the Common Good (1996), and two volumes of family history.
A former Bradley Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, Hood writes and comments frequently for national media outlets. His articles have appeared in magazines such as Readers’ Digest, National Review, The New Republic, Military History, and Reason as well as newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and USA Today.
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 chairman of the N.C. 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 the Carolina Liberty Foundation; and on the boards of directors of the State Policy Network, the Student Free Press Association, and North Carolinians for Redistricting Reform.
Hood received his B.A. in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned a M.A. in liberal studies and a graduate certificate in nonprofit management from UNC-Greensboro. A former member of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Board of Visitors, Hood currently serves on the board of WUNC-FM and the foundation board for UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media. He is a Mecklenburg County native and currently resides in Wake County with his wife, two sons, and a stepdaughter.