Jeffrey Kraus

Virginia Commonwealth University

Director of Executive Communications

As a first-generation college graduate, Jeffrey Kraus understands just how life-changing higher education can be for one’s life journey. As a servant-leader, he is personally dedicated to ensuring that postsecondary opportunities exist, not only for those coming behind him but for those who seek to acquire new skills and knowledge at any season of life.

Kraus currently works as the director of executive communications for the Office of the Provost at Virginia Commonwealth University, a position he has held since 2023. There, his leadership and strategic insights are contributing to a number of successful initiatives including an academic repositioning exercise, a ten-year university reaccreditation effort that returned with no recommendations, the creation of the “Every Ram’s a Researcher” campaign to increase experiential learning on campus, and the “AI for the public good” campaign to raise awareness of the AI course and minors available to all VCU students.

He previously served as the assistant vice chancellor for Strategic Communications for Virginia’s Community Colleges, where he was a member of the chancellor’s cabinet and led an award-winning team directing strategic online, external and internal communications for the statewide system. He has also taught as an adjunct instructor at Rappahannock Community College and the Virginia Commonwealth University Richard T. Robertson School of Communications.

Kraus began his professional career as a radio traffic reporter and a part-time anchor/reporter for the Virginia News Network (VNN), a statewide radio news network. He went on to work as a national wire service, radio and award-winning television journalist in Richmond, primarily covering government and politics.

As the president of the Virginia Capitol Correspondents Association, Kraus successfully convinced the then-chairs of the House and Senate money committees to overturn longstanding General Assembly tradition and allow reporters to attend the joint conference committee meetings where the state budget is finalized – a process that had been closed for decades.

His professiomal background includes strategic communications, speechwriting, and media relations for former then-Virginia Governor, now U.S. Senator, Timothy M. Kaine. While working in the governor’s office, Kraus authored a Virginia historical marker that stands in Capitol Square, honoring the service the Freedmen’s Bureau and Freedmen’s Bank offered to Black Americans after the Civil War.

Kraus earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree from VCU.