Matthew W. Ragas, Ph.D., is a tenured associate professor in the College of Communication at DePaul University in Chicago. He holds an M.S. in Management and a B.S. in Business Administration (marketing concentration), both from the University of Central Florida, and a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of Florida. With over a decade of experience in strategic communication and business publishing positions, Matt links theory and practice in his research and teaching.
Matt is co-editor with colleague Ron Culp of the book, "Mastering Business for Strategic Communicators" (Emerald Publishing, 2018) and co-author with Culp of "Business Essentials for Strategic Communicators" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). His research areas include corporate communications (including a focus on financial and business literacy for communicators), financial communications, investor relations, and mass media process and effects. His dissertation, which received the Nafziger-White-Salwen dissertation award, explored mass mediated-influence during corporate proxy contests, the most high-profile form of shareholder activism.
His scholarly research has been published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Mass Communication & Society, Journal of Communication Management, Public Relations Review, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Journalism Studies, Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, International Journal of Strategic Communication and others. He is also the author of chapters in edited books and trade articles. Matt has presented his work, including several Top Papers, at the International Communication Association, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Society of American Business Editors and Writers, and International Public Relations Research conferences.
The author of two trade books with Random House/Crown Business, Matt has consulted for clients in the U.S., Canada, India, and the E.U. on corporate communication strategy and brand positioning. He was an instructor for the Reputation Academy of the Reputation Institute, the world's leading reputation management consultancy. Matt's entrepreneurial background includes being a co-founder and principal of Indie Research, an equity research provider to institutional and individual investors, and the founding editor of RagingBull, a venture capital-backed online investor community (owned by eSignal, Inc.).
Matt is an active member of Page (formerly the Arthur W. Page Society), ICA, AEJMC (former chair of the Inez Kaiser graduate students of color awards committee for the PRD), and the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI). He has been awarded competitive fellowships with the Coleman Foundation for their faculty entrepreneurship program, the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University, The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations at The University of Alabama, and The Op-Ed Project.
Matt is passionate about good food, traveling, politics and public affairs, sports and the stock market. He lives with his partner, Traci, and their rescue dog, Mabel Mae, in the South Loop neighborhood of Chicago in a historic brick and timber loft.