Kristen Sunde

Kristen M. Sunde has worked in the communications field for nearly 25 years as a journalist, public information officer, communications strategist, PR/earned media manager, media trainer and educator. She has held roles in government, academic, corporate and creative agency environments. When she is not reading, writing or creating content for professional purposes, she enjoys being a media consumer through books, music, podcasts, videos and keeping up with the headlines.

Sunde teaches online and in-person Introduction to Public Speaking classes. She enjoys this class because she gets to work with students majoring in a variety of areas and teach them communications skills they’ll be able to use no matter where their professional or academic paths take them.

Sunde was part of a team honored with the 2022 National Healthcare Anti-Fraud Association’s Excellence in Public Awareness Award for outreach and communication tactics she developed to raise awareness of and prevent healthcare fraud. She also was part of a team who earned an honorable mention for excellence in crisis communications from Ragan Communications, one of the United States’ premier PR trade associations, for work she led and created in 2020-2021 toward a COVID-19 pandemic communications strategy.

Area of Expertise

The majority of Sunde’s professional experience is in health and crisis communication. She has created and led many successful health promotion communication strategies, including increasing enrollment in HealthCare.gov plans, transformation of Louisiana’s Medicaid program to a commercial insurance-based model, and raising awareness of critical health messages during the COVID-19 pandemic, West Nile virus outbreaks and hurricanes, from Katrina and Rita to Laura and Ida.

She has a bachelor’s degree in mass communication - journalism and a master of mass communication degree in political communication, both from LSU.