Following college, he worked on the staffs of George V. Hansen and James A. McClure, who served in the U.S. Congress and Senate respectively, representing Idaho.
[7] In the LDS Church, Gerard has served as a ward mission leader, scoutmaster, Young Men advisor,[8] bishop, president of the McClean Virginia Stake, and area seventy in the church's North America Northeast Area (covering the US from Virginia north, and as far west as Indiana, and Canada from Ontario east) from 2010 to 2016.
[10] After becoming a general authority in the LDS Church, Gerard was appointed as the executive director of the Public Affairs Department.
In July 2018, he spoke at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Annual Convention, announcing an educational and employment skills joint initiative between the LDS Church and the NAACP.
[11][12] In this position, he was a key voice in the church's successful advocacy for the state of Utah to pass new laws regulating medical marijuana.