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 is also the former chairman of the board at the John Locke Foundation, a North Carolina think tank that issues reports, hosts events, produces broadcast programs, and publishes Carolina Journal, which serves a monthly audience of more than half a million North Carolinians through its print, radio, and online editions as well as its news service. Hood helped found JLF 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, Triangle Business Journal, and newspapers in 50 other communities. Hood is a frequent radio and TV commentator and teaches at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

Hood is the author of nine books, including two novels in his Folklore Cycle series of historical-fantasy tales: Mountain Folk (2021), largely set during the American Revolution, and Forest Folk (2022), largely set during the War of 1812. His 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 National Review, Readers’ Digest, The New Republic, The Spectator, Military History, and Reason as well as newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

At JLF, 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 on the boards of directors of the State Policy Network and the Student Free Press Association. He is a former member of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Board of Visitors and currently serves as vice chair of North Carolina Public Radio (WUNC) and on the foundation board for UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

Hood received his B.A. in journalism from UNC-Chapel Hill. He earned a M.A. in liberal studies and a graduate certificate in nonprofit management from UNC-Greensboro. He is a Mecklenburg County native and currently resides in Wake County with his wife, two sons, and a stepdaughter.