Zach Friend
Zach Friend is an author, public policy and communications expert who has worked for Barack Obama and John Kerry’s presidential campaigns, the White House Council of Economic Advisers, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). He is a frequent guest on national television programs discussing wide ranging issues including: health, education and economic policy, politics, elections and public affairs. He has written for the Huffington Post and Business Insider and been featured on and quoted by CNN, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News, National Public Radio, the LA Times, the New York Times, Politico and others.
For nearly a decade, Zach was the Press Information Officer and a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz, California Police Department, acting as the department's spokesperson and analyzing crime statistics to help design more effective community-focused crime prevention strategies.
With Obama for America, Zach was a battleground state press secretary and on-the-record spokesperson for local, national and international media. Zach handled strategic planning, writing and media relations for television, print, digital and radio with daily on-the-record experience. For appearances and interviews, he staffed and briefed Barack Obama, Joe Biden and other campaign principals and surrogates.
Turner Publishing published his book On Message: How a Compelling Narrative Will Make Your Organization Succeed. On Message became an Amazon.com best seller in the Marketing category and won a prestigious Axiom Business Book Award in the Networking/Communication Skills category. He has led numerous trainings and conferences based on lessons from the book.
Zach was elected to the Santa Cruz County (California) Board of Supervisors, representing the Second District, in 2012 and re-elected in 2016 and 2020. The beautiful and diverse Second District, which is bordered by the Monterey Bay, the Pajaro River and the Santa Cruz Mountains, includes coastal communities and some of the most productive agricultural land in the country. He has served on and chaired multiple local, regional and national commissions and boards on housing, criminal justice reform, transportation, health care, libraries, flood protection, broadband expansion, agriculture, air pollution control and more. Zach was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the California Film Commission and serves on the National Association of Counties Board of Directors.
Zach has a Masters degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University and a BA with Honors in History from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Zach lives in Santa Cruz County with his wife and son.