I’ve spent 12 years learning how to make stories land.
Across sports, healthcare, higher education, and tech — always in organizations where the work is complex and the audience needs to trust you before they’ll listen.

Most of my career has been spent in rooms where the work is complex and the stakes are real — where getting the story right isn’t about clever copy but about earning trust from people who need to believe you before they’ll follow you.
At Stanford, I spent eight years managing digital strategy across 36 varsity sports. That meant building content systems that could serve a women’s volleyball program with the same rigor as a nationally televised football broadcast. It meant 1.3 billion impressions, 1.75 million followers, and a Heisman campaign that became a case study in how one story, told through the right system, can shape a national conversation.
At Hoag, one of California’s top-ranked health systems, I inherited a noisy social presence and rebuilt it from the foundation. The counterintuitive move — cutting content volume by 70% — drove a 169% increase in impressions per post. The lesson that runs through everything I do: fewer moves, greater movement.
At City of Hope, I led content strategy for a nationally recognized cancer center’s expansion, coordinating campaigns that bridged clinical credibility with human storytelling — including a patient celebration that earned national coverage on ABC World News.
Now, as a fractional strategist, I bring that same discipline to any organization navigating complexity — whether that’s a PE-backed SaaS company trying to unify its narrative, a healthcare system balancing clinical authority with community warmth, or an athletics program building a brand that transcends any single season. The methodology is the same. Find the story. Architect it. Build the system that compounds.
Chris Gray Strategy — Fractional Brand Architect
Brand architecture and content systems for organizations navigating complexity.
Hoag Health System — Social Media Manager
Enterprise-wide social strategy. −70% volume, +169% impressions, +498% video views.
City of Hope Orange County — Sr. Social Media Specialist
Integrated content framework. +58% reach and engagement. National ABC News coverage.
Stanford University — Asst. Athletics Director, Digital & Video
Multi-platform content engine for 36 sports. 1.3B+ impressions, 1.75M+ followers.
University of Miami — Asst. Director of Digital Strategy
Early-stage digital playbooks and content strategy for Hurricane Athletics.
University of San Diego
B.A. in Communications, Minor in English.
Different industries. Same question every time.
What's the real story here, and how do we make it go everywhere it needs to go?