Ragan’s 2026 Outstanding Service Award honoree on what’s changed in comms over the years

When Neil Foote covered real estate for The Washington Post in the late 1980s, he watched the Washington, D.C., area grow into a sprawling, multi-state metropolis.

“I wrote some of those stories about the development that has now actually come into play,” Foote told Ragan. “Once-rural communities and farmland are now, for better or for worse, massive subdivisions and shopping centers. I was based in Loudoun County for a good while at the Post, and now I understand it’s the data center capital of the world.”

Foote, the executive director of Frisco Marketing Strategy for the University of North Texas’ Division of University Brand Strategy and Communications, said that he’s watched a similar kind of transformation in the world of communications. For his decades of exemplary work in the field, he’s this year’s Outstanding Service Award honoree at Ragan’s Nonprofit Communications Awards.

“We are at a transformative period,” he said. “I’m glad I was in the early stages of that. I’m excited and scared to see where we go next.”

Ragan spoke with Foote about the award, the biggest shift he’s seen in comms and his advice for the next generation of communicators.

Ragan: What does receiving this award mean to you?

Neil Foote: I’m honored to receive this award. In a career that has stretched over many decades, it’s exciting to know that industry colleagues and friends have recognized the work I’ve been passionate about. I’m glad I’ve been able to share my work and my expertise. Hopefully I’ve inspired some folks along the way. That means not only encouraging younger people to get into the business, but also encouraging my peers and colleagues to do great work and keep up the good fight.

You’ve worked in newsrooms, agencies and education. What part of your career are you proudest of?

Honestly, the answer is all of them, because they’ve all built on each other. I grew up in Brooklyn loving to read and write, and very early on I got to work at the Miami Herald and later The Washington Post, alongside Pulitzer Prize winners and some of the most talented journalists in the country. That took me from the streets of Overtown during the civil disturbances of the early ’80s to interviewing CEOs as a business reporter in Miami. The storytelling, the reporting and those great editors laid the groundwork for what came next: helping shape digital strategy at The Dallas Morning News, helping Tom Joyner launch BlackAmericaWeb.com, then handling his communications and launching my own company. All of it woven together has been a wonderfully rich career.

What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in communications over your career?

The biggest change is analog to digital, with AI as the next evolution of that. In the mid-’90s at The Dallas Morning News, I was the young guy at the end of the table telling people who’d been in the business as long as I’d been alive that the internet was coming and the business was going to change drastically. Now we’re at a point where we’re questioning what’s true and what’s not, and what’s AI-generated versus human-generated. That’s our challenge, and maybe our opportunity. We have to keep reminding our friends, families, colleagues and students to be more diligent about questioning what we see, read and hear, so we can make good decisions.

What’s the best career advice you’ve received?

It was twofold, and I still use it today. Always ask the next question, and always have the next question ready. The part that maybe comes first is that to ask the question, you have to be in the room, in front of the people. If you get in the room and ask those questions, you can get information that helps you grow and learn, and you meet the people you need to connect with. So much of being in the room, asking questions and getting to know people has helped me reach each new level of my career.

What are you telling students entering the comms field now?

First, what we do as journalists and communicators is more important than ever. Second, this generation gets to use digital, social, AI and the smartphone to create and distribute content in ways I could never have imagined when I started in the early ’80s. So I encourage them to lean into being the best possible writer and communicator, and to use all the tools they have. I also tell them not to be deterred by the noise about whether the industry is dying. There are career paths now that didn’t exist three, five or 10 years ago, let alone 20 or 30, and if they’re passionate about the work, they have the power, the tools and the savvy to do it.

Finish the sentence: The best communicators I’ve worked with all knew how to…

Write, write, write.

Sean Devlin is the senior internal communications editor at Ragan. You can connect with him here.