Kristina Schake, who has led the Biden administration’s Covid vaccination education efforts and previously served as communications director for First Lady Michelle Obama and later in a top role in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, is joining The Walt Disney Co. as its lead spokesperson.
Schake will report to Geoff Morrell, the company’s chief corporate affairs officer.
President Joe Biden appointed Schake last year to lead the Covid vaccination campaign at the Department of Health and Human Services, where she was counselor to secretary for strategic communications. She departed at the end of last year.
Before that, she had served as global communications director for Instagram.
She previously was deputy communications director for Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. She also served as special assistant to President Barack Obama and communications director for Michelle Obama.
In a statement, Morrell said, “Her experience in the public and private sectors, in political and corporate campaigns, make her ideally suited for this important role and to help me integrate communications with government relations, public policy, and corporate social responsibility into a new Corporate Affairs team. Together with the exceptional professionals at Disney, we will help the world’s greatest storytelling company engage even more effectively with our many stakeholders around the world.”
Schake will return to California, where she had been senior communications strategist for First Lady Maria Shriver, the Women’s Conference and the California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities Initiative.
Schake also co-founded the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which challenged the state’s ban on same sex marriage and was ultimately overturned with a Supreme Court decision in 2013. She started her career working for Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.