Chris Gade

Chris Gade is the current Board Member at Luther College. Previously, they served as the Chief Public Affairs Officer at Mayo Clinic from July 1989 to April 2021. In this role, they directed the vision, strategies, implementation and performance of Mayo Clinic's earned, owned and social media, patient, employee and client strategy communications, staff engagement, community, and government engagement (including in Washington, D.C.) and reputation management.

Under their leadership, Mayo Clinic positioned itself as a global leader and drove targeted demand by sustaining leadership in earned media share of voice, more than 2x nearest competitor and accounting for 20% of all clinical care appointment requests despite 50+% staff furloughs during clinical care restrictions. Additionally, they were able to stabilize organization financials and restore more than 15K staff from furloughs by securing federal COVID-19 relief stimulus dollars.

In preparation for Mayo Clinic's 2030 strategy to be a category of one in healthcare, Gade led a department transformation, up-skilling talent and capabilities and instilling performance excellence standards. As a result of these efforts, Mayo Clinic was able to successfully respond to COVID-19, ensuring patient and staff safety through a near complete shutdown of the clinical practice and leading nearly 100% reactivation within 6 weeks.

Chris Gade received a Masters in Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota and a B.A. in Public Communication and English from Luther College.