Jeffrey Tyus presently serves as a Professor in the Department of Communication at Youngstown State University. He previously taught at Ohio University, Furman University, and Sinclair Community College before joining the faculty of YSU in 2007. Dr. Tyus earned his degrees from Ohio University, acquiring the BA and MA in the School of Telecommunication, and his Ph.D. in the School of Interpersonal Communication.

Dr. Tyus’ research agenda is heavily influenced by race, class, and gender studies, especially the study of underrepresented groups in American society. He has traveled three times to Ghana to recruit international students for both the Department of Communication and the university overall, as well as to take students on a Study Abroad experience. He most recently published a book chapter in the Sage Handbook of Family Communication that examined the portrayal of families in television sitcoms throughout the decades. He is currently researching the role communication can play in the opioid crisis.

Dr. Tyus is a member of the Central States Communication Association (CSCA) and the Ohio Communication Association (OCA). He served as President of OCA from 2004-2006. He has taken several YSU students to the OCA conference to deliver research papers and has guided several of these students to win the Top Undergraduate Communication Research Paper in the state of Ohio.