David Wade is Chief of Staff to President Obama’s Secretary of State John F. Kerry. At Hamden Hall, he competed on the debate team under Debate Coach Bill Hunter and worked on both the Literary Magazine and school newspaper. David went to Brown University where he focused on American history and political science and graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science.

At Brown, David broke into politics as a member of the DNC Executive Committee and National President of the College Democrats of America. He was one of the youngest speakers at the 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. After graduating from Brown, David joined then-Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s staff as his speechwriter, and he continued to serve in numerous roles for Kerry,  including deputy communications director in the Senate, and the national press secretary of John Kerry for President and Kerry-Edwards Presidential Campaign from 2002-2004. At the height of the presidential campaign, Time Magazine described David as having “logged more miles with the candidate than any other adviser.” After the 2004 campaign, David returned to Kerry’s Senate office and served as his PAC director. He left Sen. Kerry’s office again in 2008 to join the Obama for President campaign where he served as national press secretary for Vice Presidential nominee Joe Biden, traveling with the candidate from start to finish of the Obama-Biden general election campaign. From November 2008 through January 2013, David served as Sen. Kerry’s chief of staff throughout the four years when Kerry chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Politico, a Washington, D.C., newspaper, described David as “one of the Hill’s top aides.” Kerry himself described Wade then as “one of my most trusted advisers and one of my best friends.” David was named a 1996 Harry S Truman Scholar and a 2010 John C. Stennis Fellow. He is married to Elizabeth Alexander, and the couple lives on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.