First hired as The Accolade adviser in the 2001-2002 school year, Tommy Li oversaw the print newspaper production until the 2008-2009 school year, when he took a break for family reasons. During that time, Li guided his staff to win first place in local and state journalism write-off contests as well as the Best High School Newspaper contest sponsored by the Los Angeles Times. He also advised his staffs to earn national recognition with a Silver Crown from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and a Pacemaker from the National Scholastic Press Association.

Li returned as journalism teacher and adviser in the 2016-2017 school year. Since then, The Accolade has won three Best High School Newspaper awards from the Los Angeles Press Club‘s Southern California Journalism Awards contest (that contest was not around when Li was the adviser the first time around). Li has guided the program back to national prominence, guiding The Accolade to receive a second Pacemaker and four more Silver Crowns. Before becoming a teacher, Li earned his bachelor’s degree in print journalism and English from the University of Southern California; upon graduation, he worked as a reporter for San Bernardino County’s The Sun newspaper for nearly five years and a freelance contract writer for the Los Angeles Times for another four years. Li’s favorite quote comes from Helen Keller: “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”