Retha Hill on the strength of African American culture

An award-winning journalist, Retha Hill is executive director of the New Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The Lab’s journalism and computer science majors create innovative products, including virtual, augmented and mixed reality apps and content, web applications, news game tools and more.

Hill is the creator of Ancestors XR, an extended reality platform using immersive media and video game technologies to let families write their own genealogical tale. The startup is part of the prestigious Seed Spot Impact Accelerator. 

In 2020, Hill received a Knight Journalism 360 grant to train African American journalism professors in immersive technology, along with many other grants focused on innovation. 

She is a co-founder of the game design and education technology business Playable Media, LLC. Among other games, the business produced the false news game simulator “Hoaxes & Havoc” and the game “Inappropriate Behavior,” which is about sexual harassment in the workplace.

Hill started her career as a reporter for “The Charlotte Observer,” followed by “The Washington Post” where she was a founding editor of Washington Post Newsweek Interactive. Hill was also vice president for content for BET Interactive. After eight years at BET, Hill joined the ASU faculty in 2007.

Hill and the Lab are currently working on a unique retelling of the stories of the American Revolution.