Lou Holder Is Teaching Bowie State Students to Speak Up and Show Up

Lou Holder can tell you what the pandemic took from a generation of college students. It was not only time in the classroom. It was the habit of talking to one another face to face. 

“The pandemic really did damage to the way we communicate,” said Holder, an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster and executive-in-residence at Bowie State University. “A lot of people are still getting back to being fluent in talking to people face to face, not through text, not through technology. Shaking people’s hands, really reading the room and looking at one another in their eyes.” 

Holder is working to rebuild those skills one student at a time. In his role as executive-in-residence, he teaches Oral Communication and brings speaker programming to campus that invites students and the wider community to engage in conversations about the issues of the day. 

The role grew out of his simple desire to help. Holder, a sportscaster who has covered the athletic landscape in the Washington, D.C. region for over two decades, had a series of conversations with Bowie State University President Aminta H. Breaux and Provost Guy Amoussou about how he could use his platform and connections to benefit the university. Those conversations became a formal appointment. 

“It started off with just me wanting to help,” he said. 

In his classroom, every student builds toward an oral presentation, either informative or persuasive, rooted in their own major. A computer science student might persuade classmates why the field matters or explain what it involves. Exercises and discussions throughout the semester prepare them for that moment at the front of the room. 

His message to students is simple. “Your skills may pay your bills, but your network will get you work. And the only way you’re going to be able to network is if you know how to communicate.” 

He sees each new class as a blank canvas. “I’m trying to teach them all the things that have made me successful as an award-winning broadcaster, but also in life,” he said. 

Outside the classroom, Holder has used his network to bring national and local voices to campus. Earlier this year, he launched “I Respectfully Disagree,” a program that examined the recent Super Bowl and showed how people on opposite sides of the issues in the news can debate without name-calling. A second program, “Strength Beyond the Game,” brought former athletes together with health care practitioners, psychologists and sports sociologists to talk about mental health, both for athletes after their playing days and for college students facing pressures of their own. 

Students do more than fill the seats. They help moderate the events, market them, and recruit their classmates to attend. Every program Holder produces provides experiential learning opportunities. 

“I’m a big believer that if you don’t give them a chance, how are they going to get the experience?” he said. “They get to interview people, and they get to be right there, center, doing big-time stuff for the university.” 

This academic year will build on that foundation. On October 8, Holder will host a continuation of “Strength Beyond the Game” in recognition of Emotional Wellness Month and World Mental Health Day (October 10). The October 8 panel expands the conversation to finding strength beyond the game of sports and within the game of life. These interactive discussions are part of a celebration honoring Dr. Breaux’s 10 years of leadership as president of Bowie State. 

For Holder, the work is personal. When it came time for his daughter, Jasmine, to choose a college, she wanted to venture far from the family home in Bowie. But he insisted on Bowie State because he strongly believed in the direction of BSU leadership. 

By the time Jasmine graduated in the spring of 2026 she had pledged Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., made the dean’s list and didn’t want to leave. She still returns to campus to help with events. 

“BSU transformed my child in so many ways,” Holder said. 

A friend who attended an HBCU once told him that the experience is like getting a warm hug before being sent out into a cruel world. Holder has never forgotten it. 

“I’ve seen it with Jasmine,” he said. “She got that warm hug, and now she is so confident. It was the best decision my wife Charisse and I made as parents. That’s why I’m teaching here. I just want to give back. I want people to know the value of Bowie State University.” 

That conviction shapes how he defines what it means to be Bowie Bold. 

“It means being unapologetically you,” Holder said. “What you bring, the world needs. If you’re a communicator, cool. If you’re an accountant, cool. If you’re in STEM, cool. God gives all of us gifts, and being bold is using that gift.” 

It is the same lesson he carries into every student presentation. 

“This world doesn’t want timid opinions,” he said. “Be educated, be well versed and bold when it’s time to speak. Be Bowie Bold.”