OBU Alumnus Wins National Communication Awards

May 16, 2017

Oklahoma Baptist University alumnus Marc Hooks, ’90, recently won multiple national awards for his photography and journalistic work, some of which featured OBU. The awards were presented in late April as part of the Baptist Communicators Association’s annual Wilmer C. Fields Awards Competition. This is the 53rd year of the awards competition.

Hooks won second place in the audio-visual communication division, editorial feature, less than 3 minutes, with his editorial feature, “Bison GameDay-Episode One.” He took first place in both of the photography divisions, domestic-single and domestic-series, with his features, “Super Moon Over McLane Stadium” and “OBU GameDay.” He won second place in the domestic-single area of the photography division with his work, “Unity Rally.”

He earned both first and second place in the photography division, portrait, with his works, “Gridiron Warrior” and “Prayers for Unity.” In the feature writing division, first-person column, he won first place with his work, “Home on Bison Hill,” and in the publications-redesign section of the design division, Hooks won second place with his work titled, “The Encourager-The Magazine of Collin.”

The BCA is a professional organization of communicators who serve in editorial, public relations, electronic media, photography, management, marketing and graphic design positions principally within Baptist agencies and institutions. In BCA, they work together to inspire, inform and educate more than 250 members across the United States and around the world.

The competition is designed to encourage professional excellence among association members and to recognize those members who have done exemplary work. Each year the awards are presented at the annual workshop. The competition is named in honor of BCA lifetime member and retired vice president of public relations for the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, Wilmer C. Fields.

Hooks is a seasoned communicator, photojournalist, missionary, and church planter. He has captured images in more than 30 countries, publishing them worldwide. He has traveled throughout Russia, documenting many of the people groups across that vast country. His photo essays and street portraits from across Europe tell the stories of the places and people whom he has met along the way. For more than a quarter of a century, he has built a career in storytelling, not only through photography, but also radio, television, newspaper, video and multimedia production.

In September 2016, he brought his view of the world, and the lens through which he has captured it, to Bison Hill. For the love of his alma mater and love of the football gameday experience, he documented what gameday on Bison Hill is all about. View the “Bison Gameday Experience.”