The Walt Disney Co. has named Kristina Schake as its new lead spokesperson. The political operative who worked as an aide in the Obama White House and again as deputy communications director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign will start immediately.
The appointment comes after President Joe Biden tapped Schake last year to lead the coronavirus 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 2021.
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.
Schake’s post at Disney follows weeks of scandal for the embattled company after its CEO, Bob Chapek, pledged to help get Florida’s parental rights in education law overturned, as Breitbart News reported.
Chapek said Disney will also contribute money to efforts to defeat similar legislation in other states while the company intends to “pause” political donations in Florida out of respect for its own “LGBTQ+ community.”
Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Bob Chapek poses with Minnie Mouse during a ceremony at the Hong Kong Disneyland, as they celebrate the Hong Kong Disneyland’s 10th anniversary. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
There have been scores of video of Disney executives in recent years boasting about queer content aimed at young audiences.
Indeed, Disney has spent years infusing its programming aimed at adolescent viewers with LGBTQ fare including a Pride concert aimed at children starring drag queen Nina West, with performances of popular Disney songs that re-imagined with LGBTQ themes.
With that undercurrent of controversy, Schake has been tasked to lead global communications for the company as its executive VP, reporting to chief corporate affairs officer Geoff Morrell. He said:
I could not be more pleased to welcome Kristina to Disney and to have her leading communications for the company.
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.
Deadline reports she will now 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.