Faculty Profile for Laura Krantz

Biography Section

Biography and Education

Laura Krantz is a professor of instruction, as well as director and faculty adviser of Texas State's independent student media organization, The University Star.

Krantz worked as a reporter and editor for community newspapers in Oklahoma and Texas. For most of her journalism career, she covered crime, courts, city government and state agencies, winning multiple awards from the Oklahoma Press Association, North and East Texas Press Association, and Texas Associated Press Managing Editors.

She then moved from reporting to public relations and worked as the Director of Communication for the City of Tyler, Texas. During that time, she also taught as an adjunct in the department of communication at the University of Texas at Tyler. In 2007, she left the city and took the position of department chair of Journalism and Student Publications at Tyler Junior College where she also advised student media. That same year, she began her own public relations consulting firm, Krantz PR. She came to Texas State in 2017.

Krantz holds a master’s degree in communication from Stephen F. Austin State University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication from The University of New Mexico.

She is a past president of the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association and received that organization’s Charles T. Choate Memorial Adviser of the Year Award in 2011. She was also named an Honor Roll 2-Year Newspaper Adviser in 2010 by the national organization College Media Advisers and a Distinguished 2-year Newspaper Adviser in 2018. In 2024, she received the College Media Association's Montgomery Distinguished Service Award presented to an individual or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to collegiate media.

She received Texas State's BOKO Award for Registered Student Organization Advisor of the Year in 2023. She was twice named as a Star Professor by the Alpha Omicron Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa and was a Tyler Junior College Endowed Chair for Teaching Excellence Nominee. She was also recognized as the 2013 Volunteer of the Year by CASA for Kids of East Texas.

Teaching Interests

News reporting, interviewing, feature writing, media law, publication design, public relations

Research Interests

The influence of social media on the political process.
News deserts and community journalism.