ABOUT ME

As a child, I would sit with my grandmother and watch C-SPAN for hours. This wasn't even a punishment - I enjoyed it! That dusty TV room in Fresno is where the seeds of my commitment to public service through policy development were first planted. I made my way to Washington to study and began my career as a Congressional aide, learning the mechanisms that create movement and the levers that spur action within the Washington bureaucracy.

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In 2005 I joined Bayer CropScience, serving as the principal U.S. lobbyist for its small but growing agricultural biotechnology division. After leading successful initiatives on domestic regulatory reform, tariffs and international trade compliance, I was expatriated to Brussels, Belgium to join Bayer's European Public and Government Affairs team. 

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Advocating in favor of GMOs in Europe was a formative experience. It convinced me that effective advocacy requires a symbiotic relationship between traditional government relations and integrated communications. When I returned to the United States, I left Bayer to build my expertise in marketing and digital communications.

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Leading integrated marketing and advocacy communications campaigns for clients afforded me the opportunity to deepen my knowledge of the federal bureaucracy, broaden my understanding of the suite of tools available to influence, and break down the silos between communications and advocacy to create meaningful impact. My work on behalf of corporations, trade associations, and non-profit organizations built successful integrated campaigns to advance their advocacy agendas. While I gained valuable expertise through this work, I never felt further away from that sense of purpose I first felt watching C-SPAN with my grandmother. 

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Seeking that sense of purpose, I joined the Postal Service to contribute to the policy and political work to develop and pass the Postal Service Reform Act (PSRA), the most comprehensive postal legislation in a generation that saved the treasured American institution from imminent financial collapse and ensuring its continued viability in the daily life of every American across the country. 

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During that time, the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated an emergency response from the Postal Service - not only in delivering masks, medicines, and test kits to the American people, but in facilitating American elections by mail. I accepted a role as an Election Mail Specialist, leading the organization's operational and political response to the unprecedented influx of the use of mail-in ballots in election jurisdictions across the country. After successfully steering that effort during the 2020 and 2022 election cycles and building institutional resilience against democratic threats, I rediscovered that sense of purpose in my work. 

 

This led me to the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, where I serve as their Government Relations Advisor, helping to achieve maximum impact for our work to promote democratic resilience around the world.