Vicky Sama teaches courses in media law and ethics, sports media and covering political campaigns. In 2022, she returned to her alma mater, the University of Colorado Boulder, after her tenure at Cal Poly Humboldt where she was professor of media law and journalism department chair.
Sama was teaching CU’s NewsTeam class in April 1999 when she and her journalism students went to Littleton to report the Columbine High School massacre for Cable News Network.
Prior to her academic career, Sama was a television network producer with CNN where she covered cocaine cartels, guerrilla wars and the drug war in Latin America.
She was a regular cohost of "Signals and Noise," a monthly public radio program that analyzes issues involving the media.
She is a former competitive cyclist who shares her passion as a freelance reporter, photographer and writer covering professional cycling for various outdoor magazines with an emphasis on getting more coverage of women in the sport.
She holds a master’s degree in media research from the University of Colorado and an undergraduate degree in journalism from Montclair State University in New Jersey. Her research interests are patriotism in the press, free speech and representations of women in sports and in the storytelling of sexual violence