Monica Dias, senior counsel for content and intellectual property at The E.W. Scripps Company, will be named the 2023 recipient of the College Heights Herald Award for Outstanding Contributions in Journalism at the WKU Student Publications homecoming breakfast in November.
Dias, who served on the staff of the College Heights Herald, studied journalism and government at WKU and graduated in 1984.
She began her career as a reporter at The Kentucky Post, where she covered local governments and wrote investigative stories about environmental and transportation issues. She worked for The Kentucky Post and The Cincinnati Post for 17 years, during which she earned her law degree from the Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University in 2001.
Dias then served as a legal fellow for a year at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington, D.C. In September 2002, she became an attorney for the Frost Brown Todd law firm in Cincinnati, where she built a career on defending journalists against defamation lawsuits and enforcing their rights of access to public meetings, public records and the courts. She is a nationally known media lawyer and is among the most prominent First Amendment attorneys in the region.
In April 2020, Dias joined The E.W. Scripps Company in Cincinnati as senior counsel for content and intellectual property, where she helps Scripps journalists with various newsgathering issues, including prying public records from government agencies. She also protects Scripps’ content against copyright infringers and manages Scripps’ trademark portfolio.
Dias lives in Covington, Kentucky with her husband, Dan Hassert, a former Kentucky Post reporter who later became Gov. Steve Beshear’s speechwriter. She is stepmom to Abigail Hassert and Jacob Hassert.
Dias is the 71st recipient of the College Heights Herald Award, which honors Student Publications alumni with a track record of excellence performing or serving journalism.
Dias will receive the Herald Award at the 72nd Student Publications Homecoming Breakfast at 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, at the Adams-Whitaker Student Publications Center at WKU. You can register for the breakfast here.