Kristina Schake, the head of the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 vaccine education campaign, has been named by Disney as its new executive vice president of global communications, according to a Disney Press Release.
After a long career in Hollywood, Washington beckoned and brought Kristina Schake to The White House to help Michelle Obama become one of the most successful First Ladies in history as her communications director. She’s been in Washington since; previously appointed by President Biden as counselor to the Secretary for Strategic Communications at the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services and heading the vaccine education campaign. She also served as the global communications director for Instagram.
Schake will report to Disney’s chief corporate affairs officer, Geoff Morrell. In a statement to Deadline, 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.”
Following her graduation from John Hopkins University, Schake began her career working for Los Angeles Mayor Richard J. Riordan and later became a senior communications strategist for First Lady Maria Shriver, the Women’s Conference, and the California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities Initiative. She also co-founded the American Foundation for Equal Rights there, which worked to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage. She will be returning to California for her new role at Disney. We wish Kristina all the best.