About

Child Care Aware® of America
Senior Vice President, Policy and Research | 2024–2026
Chief, Policy | 2022–2024
Deputy Chief, Policy and Advocacy | 2021–2022
Senior Director of Federal and State Government Affairs | 2019–2021

• Provided vision, leadership, and management of policy, advocacy and research teams, including federal and state government relations and advocacy campaigns. Developed policy and research agendas that promoted CCAoA's mission and vision. Advanced CCAoA's mission as the country's leading voice for child care, championing increased access to affordable, high-quality child care.

• Positioned organization as nation's leading voice for child care as a spokesperson on national and state policy to media, policymaker, influencer, and coalition audiences. Highlights include delivering keynote addresses and presentations at national and state conferences, going on record with globally recognized publications such as Good Morning America, the Washington Post, Politico, the Hill, USA Today, Fortune, TIME, Yahoo News, CBS News, the 19th, and PBS.

• Authored, edited, and contributed to research reports, policy analysis, testimony, comments, letters, and other resources to advance organization positions on child care and early learning.

• Drove recovery of national child care systems during and after pandemic through government affairs strategy that ultimately secured over $50 billion in relief funding and through strong Congressional relationships created opportunity for CEO to testify to House committee for sustained child care funding.

• Mobilized and aligned the child care and early learning policy and advocacy efforts of 400+ state and local Child Care Resource and Referral agencies nationwide. Designed policy and advocacy technical assistance processes and executed 50-state child care and early learning policy change strategy.

• Engaged in organization direction setting as part of Senior Leadership Team, representing policy, advocacy, and research unit. Engaged with organization board to support governance and decision-making. Managed policy and advocacy team implementation of a new strategic plan including establishing metrics and annual goals.

• Partnered across communications, development, and government affairs functions to align policy strategy with organizational priorities, ensuring coordinated internal and external messaging.

• Guided division execution towards strategic plan goals and metrics. Led teams to success with 10% growth in advocates, 5% growth in advocacy actions, and over 1,000 federal government relations activities annually.

• Managed multiple, complex, policy and research projects. Supervised policy, advocacy and research teams of 10 staff members.

• Coordinated organization grassroots and grasstops advocacy, including annual policy conference and Advocacy Day for over 300 child care stakeholders.

• Played a key role in securing $5M of policy and research funding.

• Served as interim leader of practice team for 12 months, managing additional team of 9 and CCAoA's portfolio of child care system building work.

American Association of University Women (AAUW)
Director of Federal Policy | 2018–2019
Interim Vice President of Public Policy and Government Relations | 2017–2018
Senior Government Relations Manager | 2016–2017
Government Relations Manager | 2011–2016
Government Relations Coordinator | 2008–2011
Policy Assistant | 2007–2008

• Top federal lobbyist for mission-driven 501(c)3 non-profit organization with 170,000 members and supporters. Established relationships in coalitions, congressional offices, and federal agencies. Led election and voter education efforts for affiliated 501(c)4 action fund.

• Member of the organization's senior leadership team. Developed and implemented metrics and goals for the public policy team. Contributed to developing a new vision for the organization as a part of a 16-person strategic plan task force. Implemented grassroots and grasstops strategy of the organization.

• Supervised government relations and grassroots advocacy staff. Prepared and managed annual budget proposals and managed expenses for public policy program.

• Contributed to passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, and the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act.

• Orchestrated campaign to finalize strong regulations to implement Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act amendments to the Clery Act.

• Organization spokesperson interviewed by local and national press, including the Washington Post, Politico, NPR, NBC4, WTOP, and Refinery 29.

• Subject matter expert on policy related to education, economic security, and civil rights with experience developing position papers, fact sheets, letters, regulatory comments, press releases, statements, and electronic advocacy messages.

• Developed research-driven policy agenda on sexual harassment and violence in schools leading to renewed policymaker and media attention and additional support in Congress for legislation.

• Served as a thought leader representing the organization by providing presentations to a wide variety of audiences including advocates, policymakers, and coalition partners.

• Directed lobbying disclosure for the activities of AAUW and the AAUW Action Fund.

• Federal lobbyist on a wide range of public policy issues. Represented AAUW in coalition spaces.

• Planned and executed successful Congressional briefings, advocacy trainings, and fly-in lobby days.

George Mason University, Schar School of Policy and Government | 2013
Master of Public Policy. Member Pi Alpha Alpha honor society.

Davidson College | 2007
Bachelor of Arts in Economics. Concentration in Gender Studies.

• Strategic, analytical, forward-thinking, coalition builder. 

• Advanced skills in Microsoft Office. Daily use of HubSpot, Quorum and Politico Pro. Trained in Flourish, Salsa, State Net, Raiser’s Edge, WordPress, SAS, STATA.