Arizona Republic sports columnist joins ASU Cronkite School

Paola Boivin, the award-winning sports columnist for the Arizona Republic, is joining Arizona State University to teach in the expanding sports journalism programs at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Boivin will join the Cronkite faculty at a time of significant growth and interest in sports media. The school launched sports journalism degree programs on the master’s and bachelor’s levels in 2015 and also runs summer sports journalism camps for high school students.

“Paola is not only an in-depth, thoughtful and insightful sports journalist and commentator, but an excellent teacher and a wonderful role model for the many women we have at ASU interested in careers in sports media,” said Christopher Callahan, dean of the Cronkite School. “She is a fantastic addition to our growing team of top-flight sports journalism faculty.”

Boivin, who taught part-time at the school this past year, will join a growing cadre of sports specialists on the full-time Cronkite faculty, including Douglas Anderson, the former dean of the College of Communications at Penn State University; Sada Reed, a former sports reporter; Brett Kurland, a former sports producer who runs the Cronkite News sports bureau in Phoenix; and Tom Feuer, a former sports producer in Los Angeles who runs Cronkite’s sports bureau in Santa Monica, California.

Part-time Cronkite faculty specializing in sports media include former USA Today national sports reporter Greg Boeck; Josh Rawitch, Arizona Diamondbacks senior vice president for communications; Mark Dalton, Arizona Cardinals vice president for media relations; and former Detroit Free Press baseball writer John Lowe.

“I felt an immediate connection when I walked through the doors of the Cronkite School,” Boivin said. “The marriage of committed students, top-notch faculty and state-of-the-art facilities creates an exhilarating environment and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”

Boivin represents the school’s multiplatform approach to journalism in the digital age. In addition to her duties as one of the Arizona Republic’s main sports columnists, she appears weekly on sports radio, has done extensive reporting for 12 News, shoots and edits video on her mobile phone for azcentral.com and engages audiences on various social media platforms.

“For more than 20 years, Paola has shared her incredible talent with the readers of the Arizona Republic and azcentral.com,” said Nicole Carroll, editor and vice president of news of the Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. “She’s a columnist equally skilled at hard-hitting commentary as insightful game analysis. But she’s often said that she’s most drawn to the human stories, giving voice to the longshots, the underdogs. We’ve been fortunate to have Paola on our team. Now, she’ll be guiding the next generation of sports journalists at ASU. We’re happy for her — and for them.”

Boivin joined the Arizona Republic in 1994. Before becoming a regular columnist, she covered sports beats, including ASU football and basketball.

A graduate of the University of Illinois, Boivin was a sports talk show host at KMPC radio in Los Angeles and a columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News before joining the Arizona Republic. Earlier in her career she was a sports editor at the Camarillo (California) Daily News.

She has won numerous awards from Associated Press Sports Editors and National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. She also served as president of the Association for Women in Sports Media in 2001.