Biography

Chris leads the communications team at the Stanford Woods Institute, directing strategy, messaging and outreach, media relations, online constituency building, publications and other activities promoting the Stanford Woods Institute community’s research, expertise and events. A veteran communications professional, Chris has worked in print and electronic news as well as university public affairs and non-profit environmental advocacy. Prior to joining the Stanford Woods Institute in 2012, Chris served as communications director for the Pacific Forest Trust, a non-profit forest conservation organization based in San Francisco, and at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where she led media relations and other communication outreach at the local, regional and national level. Chris began her career in news, first as an assignment editor for NBC-affiliate KGET-TV and then as a print reporter covering the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, water, wildfire, endangered species and other environmental issues at the Kern Valley Sun, a weekly newspaper in California's southern Sierra mountains. She went on to cover crime, courts, higher education and human interest features before working as assistant features editor of The Bakersfield Californian.