Matt Ragas is a professor in the College of Communication where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in business literacy for communicators, corporate social responsibility (CSR), entrepreneurship, media relations, and digital and traditional public relations. He was the founding director of the
professional communication graduate program. In a prior role as academic director of the PR and advertising graduate program, it was named PRWeek Awards Education Program of the Year.
Ragas earned his PhD in mass communication from the University of Florida. He holds an MS in management and a BS in business administration (marketing concentration), both from the University of Central Florida. Topics of Ragas’s interdisciplinary research include corporate communications, investor relations and financial communications, and news and public opinion (and influences on news content). With two decades of professional experience in media and communication, he links theory and practice in his teaching and research.
Ragas is co-author, with
Ron Culp, of the books
Business Acumen for Strategic Communicators: A Primer (Emerald Publishing) and
Business Essentials for Strategic Communicators: Creating Shared Value for the Organization and its Stakeholders (Palgrave Macmillan). He is co-editor with Culp of the book
Mastering Business for Strategic Communicators: Insights and Advice from the C-suite of Leading Brands (Emerald Publishing). These books are in use at more than 30 colleges and universities, as well as in professional training and development programs.
He is the author of two earlier trade books,
The Power of Cult Branding (Crown/Random House) and
Lessons from the E-Front (Prima/Random House), and his scholarly research has appeared in
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly,
Mass Communication & Society,
Journalism Studies,
Public Relations Journal,
Journal of Communication Management,
Corporate Communications,
Public Relations Review,
International Journal of Communication,
International Journal of Strategic Communication,
Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism,
Case Studies in Strategic Communication, and
Journal of Health and Mass Communication among others.
He is the author of a variety of chapters in edited books and he has contributed to The Chronicle of Higher Education, NIRI's IRupdate, PRNews, PRSA's Strategies & Tactics, The Public Relations Strategist and Public Relations Tactics, and to the Institute for Public Relations. Ragas serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Public Relations Research, Journal of Public Relations Education, Public Relations Journal, Journal of Public Interest Communications, and Case Studies in Strategic Communication as well as an invited reviewer for more than 20 different academic journals.
Ragas has been a recipient of the Dorothy Bowles Public Service Award and the Nafziger-White Salwen Dissertation Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. He has also received the college's Excellence in Teaching award, DePaul ENGAGE socially responsible faculty awards, and several other teaching or research awards and nominations. A member of the board of trustees for the Arthur W. Page Society, a global professional association for senior corporate communicators, he is most proud of
serving as faculty advisor on 12 winning Page/Institute for Public Relations case study competition cases authored by his graduate students.
A New Orleans native, Ragas is passionate about good food, traveling, the stock market, politics and public affairs, and sports (go Florida Gators, UCF Knights, New Orleans Saints, all Chicago teams, particularly the White Sox, and the Blue Demons, of course). He lives in the South Loop with his better half, Traci, an IT program manager, and their trusty companion, Mabel Mae, a rescue dog.
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