Polly McLean is an associate professor of Media Studies in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Austin and has published a number of articles in scholarly and professional journals. McLean has taught at Howard University, the University of Zambia and the University of Namibia. She is currently working on a book about the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Colorado.