John Tedesco was appointed Director of the School of Communication. Tedesco joined the Virginia Tech community in 1999 and has been a Professor in the Public Relations program since 2013; he served as director of graduate studies from 2004 to 2009 and as director of research and outreach from 2009 to 2013 in the department. His research focus is political advertising and political public relations, and he has secured grants totaling more than $1 million from various sources such as the National Science Foundation and the Charles Koch Foundation. Tedesco earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University at Albany, State University of New York and his Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma.