JD Schramm

A seasoned communicator, coach, and entrepreneur, JD Schramm works at the intersection of leadership, strategy, and communication. He currently teaches in the master’s program at the University of Southern California and previously served as a lecturer in management at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he helped shape the school’s approach to communication education. At Stanford, he led the development and launch of the Mastery in Communication Initiative and co-founded LOWKeynotes, a program in which students conceive, prepare, and deliver nine-minute TED-style talks to live audiences with the support of professional communication coaching.

Schramm’s work centers on high-stakes communication, helping leaders align message, audience, and outcome so communication is measured not by what is said, but by what changes as a result. As a speaker and leadership communication coach, he partners with senior leaders and organizations to translate complexity into clarity, particularly in moments where decisions, investment, and influence are on the line. His clients have advanced major organizational initiatives, secured significant funding, and mobilized stakeholders around complex scientific, financial, and social challenges.

Schramm has spoken at TED and TEDx events and has coached scores of leaders to do the same. He has worked with organizations including the Aspen Institute Presidential Fellows for Community College Excellence, YPO, Meta, PayPal, Handshake, CAE, Gilead, Facebook, Google, Genentech, Jane Street Financial, AQR Capital, Adams Street Partners, Qualtrics, Ciena, and Breakline.

Grounded in his own journey of resilience and reinvention, Schramm believes communication mastery is a learnable skill, and one of the most powerful tools leaders have to influence, align, and inspire. He is an active member of the LGBTQ community and an advocate for suicide prevention, foster care services, and HIV/AIDS research. Schramm holds an Ed.D. in higher education leadership from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business, and a 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.