Kristina Schake, a Los Angeles-based media and communications strategist, has led communications and media campaigns for some of the most prominent change making organizations, campaigns and events

Currently, Schake is the chief communications strategist for California First Lady Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference, the nation’s premier forum for women. This year, Schake helped the conference achieve its highest level of global media attention ever, as the two-day forum gathered the likes of Bono, Condoleezza Rice, Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi, Jennifer Lopez and 70 other philanthropic, political, business and thought leaders to inspire and empower women to be “architects of change.” In addition, Schake has helped Shriver build on the two-day conference to create year-long initiatives that engage women with health, education, community and economic empowerment programs and projects.

Schake is a top advisor to The California Endowment, California’s largest healthcare foundation. She is helping guide the foundation toward its 10-year strategic plan and its overall strategic vision of building healthy communities where children are healthy, safe and ready to learn. Schake has also advised The California Endowment on its efforts to advance local, state and national health care policy.

In 2007, Schake acted as Global Communications Director for Live Earth, producer Kevin Wall and former Vice President Al Gore’s global music event staged on July 7, 2007. Under Schake’s leadership, Live Earth became the largest global entertainment event in history, as it brought together more than 150 music artists, hundreds of international environmental NGOs, 60 award-winning filmmakers, scores of international celebrities, world leaders, scientists and thought leaders to inspire a worldwide movement to tackle the climate crisis. The event touched an audience of 2 billion people, as Schake oversaw a 6-month global communications campaign in the media markets of New York, London, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Johannesburg, Hamburg and Istanbul.

Schake’s experience includes serving as the first Communications Director of the California Children and Families Commission and as Executive Director of I Am Your Child foundation, where she focused on outreach to low-income women as well as strategic partnerships with the National Governors’ Association and the National League of Cities to design local and state family service programs for vulnerable children. As a Senior Vice President at GMMB, she was a chief adviser to First 5 California, which directs more than $600 million in funding each year to children’s and health programs.

In addition to several candidate, ballot initiative and issue campaigns, Schake has aided the Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean and John Kerry for President campaigns, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Kristina Schake is a founding Board Member of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, an organization dedicated to protecting and advancing equal rights for every American through legal, policy and political advocacy. Schake was formerly the speechwriter and press deputy for Los Angeles Mayor Richard J. Riordan. She is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University.