Journalist Kraske Joins UMKC Faculty

Will continue as host of KCUR’s ‘Up to Date’

Award-wining journalist Steve Kraske is joining the faculty at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Kraske, longtime political correspondent for The Kansas City Star and host of “Up to Date” on KCUR-FM, has been named an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Communications Studies, part of the College of Arts and Sciences at UMKC. He will teach journalism and mass communications classes, starting with the current semester.

Kraske will continue to host “Up to Date,” and will write a weekly column and occasional other projects for The Star.

“I’m really excited to be starting this new chapter in my career,” Kraske said. “I’m glad that I will be able to keep one foot in my traditional journalist role. I have taught single classes at UMKC during a couple of semesters and I really enjoyed the experience of working with students. I’m looking forward to continuing that.”

One person who is quite familiar with Kraske’s broadcast journalism career is Wayne Vaught, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, who is a frequent “Up to Date” guest in the recurring “Ethics Professors” segment.

“Having shared studio time with Steve Kraske many times over the years at KCUR, I have developed a high level of respect for his journalism skills and his intellect,” Vaught said.  “He will be a terrific addition to a great UMKC faculty, and provide a real benefit to our students.”

Kraske has been the political correspondent for The Star since 1994, where he covered national, state and local politics. He first came to The Star in 1986, after working at daily newspapers in Iowa and Illinois and at United Press International. Kraske is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he received a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

In 2001, he and a team of Star reporters won the Missouri Press Association’s top government-reporting award for a series of stories on the death of Gov. Mel Carnahan. In 1991, he was awarded a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University.


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