Michael Graves has served on the faculty of the Department of Communication Studies, Liberty University, since fall 2004. He completed his bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees in speech communication at California State University at Los Angeles and his Ph.D. in speech communication at the University of Southern California in 1972.

Graves has taught at Azusa Pacific University; George Fox University, where he chaired the Division of Communication and Literature; and Regent University, where he served as department chair and associate dean for academics in the School of Communication and the Arts and directed more than 20 doctoral dissertations, three of which won national awards. Michael now teaches in the new M.A. program in communication studies at Liberty University.

Graves has served as the president of the Religious Communication Association and now serves on the executive committee of the American Culture Association in the South. He served on the managerial board of Christian Scholar's Review and now serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Communication and Religion as well as on the international advisory board of Quaker Studies. Graves has served as “blind reviewer” for Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Journal of Communication and Religion, Quaker Studies, Rhetorica, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, and Western Journal of Speech Communication.

Graves has published more than 30 essays and reviews in scholarly journals, two of which received the “Article of the Year” award from the Religious Communication Association. His coedited book, More Than Precious Memories: The Rhetoric of Southern Gospel Music (Mercer University Press, 2004) received the 2005 Ray and Pat Brown Award from the Popular Culture Association for the best edited book in Popular Culture Studies. Graves was also the first American to present the annual George Richardson lecture to the annual meeting of the Quaker Studies Research Association in Birmingham, England.

Graves presently worships at the Celtic Christian service of Rivermont Avenue Baptist Church, Lynchburg, Virginia, there being no nearby Friends meetings. He is married to Dr. Darlene Richards Graves, who is also professor of communication studies at Liberty University. They reside in Forest, Virginia, two miles from Thomas Jefferson's summer home, and have two grown children (Monica and Aaron) and three grandchildren, all of whom reside in the Pacific Northwest.