Vantage proudly welcomes Leah Kraus to the team as an Executive Strategic Consultant. Leah’s career spans more than 30 years, including over 25 in higher education. She began her career as a high school teacher, later becoming a Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Guilford College—a small, private liberal arts college. Later, she moved to the University of North Carolina Wilmington, a public R2 university, and then to North Carolina Central University (NCCU), a public historically Black university.
Leah retired as CIO from NCCU in the summer of 2023. Retirement didn’t last long. In the fall of 2023, Leah became an IT Global Consultant with Duke University, a private R1 institution, in the Office of Information Technology Global Strategies Division.
Across her roles, Leah has developed strong leadership teams, built collaborative relationships across campus business and academic units, established actionable strategic plans, and implemented effective governance. Her work has been recognized regionally and nationally. In 2015 she was named Best CIO – Public University by Triangle Business Journal, and she was nominated for CIO of the Year by the Women in IT Awards in 2019.
Throughout her career, Leah has been passionate about technology’s transformative effect on education. This passion has driven Leah to volunteer locally and nationally. She is one of the founding board members of Digital Durham, where she serves as Treasurer and has been recognized for her work by North Carolina’s governor. She is also a member of the Minority Serving – Cyberinfrastructure Consortium leadership board, where she serves as Secretary.
“We are so excited for Leah to join Vantage. Her involvement and dedication to higher education brings new strengths to our Vantage team and our capabilities in working with our clients and colleagues.”
–Cathy Bates, Senior Principal, Associate Partner
Leah looks forward to supporting clients through her expertise in strategic planning, organizational assessments and development, leadership development, CIO executive advisory services, IT governance design and implementation, and security governance.
Leah earned her Bachelor of Science in business and her Master of Education in supervision and education technology from the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
You can connect with her on LinkedIn.