Chris Valentine Portfolio

Communications

Case Study – UCCS Crisis Communications
In my most recent role, I served as an advisor to the Chancellor and executive leadership team, guiding institutional messaging and reputation strategy. My work has included managing communications during major crises and other high-profile incidents, requiring sound judgment under pressure and clear, strategic storytelling.

Here is a timeline of the issues that I have worked on in the past 24 months.

Even with all of these challenges and issues, UCCS has seen enrollment growth for the past three semesters, enjoyed record fundraising and continues to have strong community support. 

Case Study – Double Homicide at UCCS

In the early morning of Feb 16, 2024, I was notified of an active shooter on campus. I responded to the scene while one of my team members responded to the Joint Information Center. I spent the next 12 hours at the scene working closely with the media and the police.
It was determined that two people had been shot – a student and a person who was not a student. The suspect, also a student, was arrested three days later.

I hosted media briefings throughout the day, including this news conference with campus and community leaders.

This incident took my full-time attention for months following the incident. My team handled hundreds of media inquiries, made regular campus updates for all of our audiences (including students, faculty, staff, alumni, community partners, donors) and ongoing collaboration with our partners at the police department and the district attorney’s office.

UCCS engaged a third party to conduct a review of the incident. That report was released in December 2024 and I hosted a news conference where the Chancellor and I answered questions about the report. (photo at the top of the page)

The suspect went to trial in April 2025 and the story again made headlines and my team again handled a large volume of media inquiries. In the end, the suspect was found guilty of two counts of murder.

Case Study – Reduction in Force at St. Mary-Corwin

St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center in Pueblo restructuring, layoffs impact 300 staff members
KOAA, March 7, 2018

As the communications lead for the hospital, we were provided months of prior notice of the impending reduction in force, impacting 300 people. This allowed us time to create a very thorough communication plan.

On the day of the announcement, we implemented the plan.
8 a.m. – hosted a mandatory hospital leadership meeting

9 a.m. to noon – teams of three that included a senior hospital leader, a representative from Human Resources and a member of the communications team met with each department that was impacted. These meetings allowed the impacted associates to hear the news directly from a leader with accurate transition information provided by HR and communications.

1 p.m. – once everyone impacted was notified, we hosted a news conference.

Follow-up interviews and live shots outside of the hospital occurred throughout that afternoon.

At the end of the day, the communications team debriefed and determined that our plan had been executed as we had planned and we were not surprised or impacted in any way that was unexpected. Bringing the communications team in early and allowing us to create a plan made this announcement of this difficult decision go as well as it could.