JD Schramm

A seasoned communicator and entrepreneur, JD Schramm teaches the theoretical and practical aspects of effective communication as a lecturer in management at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. At Stanford, he led the development and launch of the Mastery in Communication Initiative to help GSB students improve their mastery of speaking and writing. He helped grow the communication offerings at the GSB from none in 2007 to more than 20 sections of elective courses in the 2019. He co-founded the LOWKeynotes program, where students work with a professional communication coach to conceive, prepare, and deliver a nine-minute TED-like talk to a packed audience of their peers.

Schramm has spoken at TED and TEDx events and has coached scores of others to do the same. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Huffington Post, and HBR Online. A sought-out speaker and trainer, he’s worked with firms and groups including the Aspen Institute Presidential Fellows for Community College Excellence, Qualtrics, YPO, Facebook, Breakline, Jane Street Financial, GenenTech, Ciena, AQR Capital, Adams Street Partners, and Google. Schramm is an active member of the LGBTQ community, particularly focused on inclusion efforts within higher education and communities of worship. He’s an advocate for suicide prevention, foster care services, and HIV/AIDS research.

During the 2018–2019 school year, he served as the faculty director for Columbia University’s Career Design Lab in San Francisco, an innovative West Coast presence for Columbia. Schramm holds his Ed.D. in higher education leadership from the University of Pennsylvania, his MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business, and his BFA in theater from Emporia State University in Kansas. He and his husband, Rev. Ken Daigle, make their home in San Francisco raising three very active children.