Dr. Damon Kraft

Dr. Damon Kraft is the Provost and Executive Vice President for Student Success at Kansas Wesleyan University. Under his leadership, the university has achieved its highest retention rates in known institutional history, including its highest known average over the last five years. Dr. Kraft has led the university in reimagining its concept of the first-year experience for college students. This has included revising the first-year-experience course, beginning student success coaching for all first-year students, connecting incoming students with peer mentors, and creating programming to support historically underserved students. For his work in this capacity, he was recognized in 2021 as an Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate by the National Resource Center for the The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, based at the University of South Carolina.

In addition, Dr. Kraft leads institutional assessment efforts on campus, including the university’s most recent highly successful comprehensive review (2017) and four-year update (2021) with the Higher Learning Commission. He has been the team lead for KWU’s Assessment Academy team and the Equity in Retention team through the Gardner Academy. Dr. Kraft serves as a peer mentor for HLC Assessment Academy and serves on the HLC Conference Committee. As Provost, Dr. Kraft is also the cabinet-level official for Student Development, and he provides strategic direction for residential life and campus events. He completed his doctoral work in medieval literature at the University of Missouri, and his MA and BA, both in English, are from Emporia State University.