For outstanding service to journalism in Tennessee, Mr. Leon Alligood is inducted into the 2017 class of the Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame.
Mr. Alligood graduated from The University of Georgia with a degree in journalism in 1975, and from Goucher College, Maryland, with a master's degree in 2007.
For more nearly 30 years he worked as a reporter and writer, and for 22 years wrote for the Nashville Banner, then the Nashville Tennessean. While at the Tennessean, he primarily wrote human interest and narrative stories on a variety of beats. He also was an embedded reporter covering the 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan and Iraq.
His writing has won awards in state, regional and national contests. He was recognized by the National Weather Service office in Nashville for his work highlighting several National Weather Service programs.
Mr. Alligood is currently an associate professor in the School of Journalism at MTSU where he teaches Reporting, Feature Writing, Multimedia Reporting and Immersion Journalism.
Mr. Alligood is also the advisor for the MTSU student paper, Sidelines, which routinely wins numerous awards each year for editing, reporting and design. This past year his students won 37 awards, including 12 first place awards, at the 2017 Tennessee Associated Press Broadcast and Media Editors College Contest.
Under his direction student journalists from MTSU won nine awards in the Best of the South competition at the Southeast Journalism Conference, including four first-place finishes in several of the most competitive categories.
For the past five years, Mr. Alligood has taken groups of journalism students on a three-week road trip across Tennessee to partner with host newspapers in each section of the state.
Mr. Leon Alligood has distinguished himself by outstanding service to the profession of journalism, and has brought great honor to himself, his community and the State of Tennessee.
