Profile

I put together speeches, testimony, white papers, issues briefs and other documents for government relations professionals, mainly lobbyists in Washington.

My office is my laptop. I’m married to a guy who travels quite a bit. I have the flexibility to follow him around to different projects and conferences.  It enriches my experience and my ability to communicate in the capacity required of me.  Part of what I need to do is to be in touch with the people who make policy happen at the grassroots level.  Being outside the Beltway can be a huge plus in that regard.

I typically work from a small den in my house.  It’s all the space I need.

I like to think that I work with the most brilliant people on earth. I don’t think that’s hyperbole. I work with very sharp and savvy Washington lobbyists who would wow you with their abilities and their network.  They are incredible strategists. 

I also work with scientists, doctors and academics.  Many of whom have much to offer to the political dialogue.  They sometimes have difficulty translating their more complicated messages in a way that is understandable to a congressional audience.

I work with fabulous non-profits who are trying to change the world in amazing ways, people who are tremendously idealistic about what this country is capable of.  They put their ideals into action.  To be able to help them advance their various policy initiatives is always very rewarding for me.

Knowing how to write.
Knowing how to respond very quickly to a request.
Knowing how to jump on an opportunity.
Knowing how to adapt very quickly and be very flexible.

It’s hectic. It’s wild. It really depends on the day. It’s very harried. I might get a text or an e-mail at 6:00 a.m with an urgent message requiring immediate response.  I often have phone calls late at night and on the weekends. I am constantly churning out information and trying to mold it and adapt it to day-to-day changes in the political environment.

I wake up very early and check my computer to make sure no crisis has imploded on the news front. I scan the headlines, looking especially at news articles relevant to the areas of policy I’m working in at the time.  Then, I crack open my documents.  I have a laptop on my left and a desktop computer in front of me—one for research, one for writing. I have stacks and stacks of papers around me at all times. I have highlighters and highlighter flags, red pens and post-its. I am constantly researching and synthesizing information.  I access as much information as I can as quickly as I can.  That’s my daily process.

I often have 2-3 conference calls a day. I have to be flexible and ready for constant crises and changes. 

Then, I take a nice breather at the end of the day. I try to spend at least 2-3 hours of intensive time with my kids before they go to bed.  That’s the most rewarding part of my day.

I love putting flair and style onto an argument and being able to elevate the dialogue in Washington.

I love the opportunity to feel like what I do has real impact.  Many of the documents I write are read by White House staff. The documents that I put together are circulated on Capitol Hill for the review and evaluation of staffers from all over the country, Senators, and Representatives.  Sometimes I have the satisfaction of flipping on C-SPAN and seeing how someone has taken a paper that I have put together or talking points that I have put together and seeing someone at a Capitol Hill press conference rattling the talking points off as part of their speech. 

On many occasions, I see how documents I put together translate into changes in policy.  It’s incredible to be part of the process and see it in action. 

Work is work and it’s tremendously challenging. The deadlines I have to meet are often next to impossible. My perfectionist tendencies run against my need to sleep.  I joke that my mind is flipping through a thesaurus all night every night.  I’ve had many sleepless nights over how a paper should be put together.  I really agonize over every word.

My family.  I want them to live in the best America possible. Is that terribly cliché? Probably. But it’s true.

I’m inspired by good writing, beautiful speeches, the nuances of political rhetoric.  When I’m not writing, I’m reading, reading, reading.

My parents.  They had a tremendous influence.  They have brilliant political minds. There is perhaps no one in Washington who has had as multidimensional a political career as my father.  I’m very proud of what he has accomplished. 

My mother also inspires me.  She was a speechwriter in the Reagan Administration and now works for the Senate.  She is one of the finest writers on earth.

My parents have very high standards. I think that was good for me.  Often times, when I would put something together in collaboration with them, they would tell me flat-out if my contribution wasn’t up to par.  They wouldn’t shy from telling me exactly where I needed to improve.  They were constantly pushing me to be more thoughtful and to be a better writer and communicator.  From a work experience perspective, they were the toughest “bosses” I could have had, but they gave me the very best training.

It comes down to what one of my advisors in college said: “You should start a business.  You need to start a business.” I’m glad he encouraged me to take the leap.

It’s difficult to pinpoint just one piece of advice that would qualify as “the worst.”  However, I will say this: There a lot of people who will offer you advice and couch it in terms that make it appear on the surface to be affectionate and loving, but beneath that veil, there are direct aims at you and criticism.  In particular, it is extraordinary to me to see the extent to which women oppress other women. There are often very few cheerleaders for people who are doing extraordinary things that may be a little beyond their capacity.  Many people are ready to boo and jeer. 

Even when people say they are looking out for your best interests, they may try to dampen your dreams and your hopes.  It’s okay to brush it off.  That’s my policy.

I think it is so hard to be a teenage girl today. It was hard when I was a teenager, but I think it is ten times harder today.  There are a lot of pernicious influences at play. I think it is important to look ahead and know that there are great things beyond the horizon.  I remember being in high school and thinking it was the be all end all.  It was a cocoon environment. It was all-encompassing for me.  I was grateful for those moments when my Dad would yank me away to a Washington event.  I think it is important to be mindful of the opportunities that are beyond high school.

I would encourage a long-term perspective. I think a teenage girl should know that she is a complicated and potentially extraordinary person.  You can be interesting and complex – so much more than what the social strata in high school would define for you.

Befriend lots of kinds of people. It’s important to an enriched life. I believe really strongly that there are some great people in high school that you will regret not getting to know if you keep to your own clique or a small circle of friends.

One of the best things for me when I was a teenager was to get a job. I got a job as a hostess in a restaurant. I wanted a job that was a little bit different. It was a defining experience for me. It was the hardest thing I had done in my life to that point. I made every mistake that you can make in a restaurant.  Every day, I was sure I would be fired.  I learned about responding to crises quickly and calmly. I learned about how to negotiate with difficult and demanding people. I learned a lot about serving other people.  Every business today and almost every role you will have in life will be a service role. It’s so important to learn the skill of serving.

The skill of listening is also important.  There is so much chatter and blabber and narcissism in the teenage years. The earlier you can learn how to listen and serve other people well, the better positioned you will be in the business world.

I wish I would have had more confidence in myself. I think it takes a lot of self-confidence to start your own business, but there are so many forces that suggest, “Oh, you can’t do this. You’re just a young girl.”

In the first year after I launched my business, I was working with a big Fortune 100 client.  Their VP of Government Affairs would write me e-mails that said things like, “You are very talented for someone your age. I’m really impressed that you can accomplish so much for someone your age.”  There were subtle things that suggested I couldn’t be accomplishing those things or that I wasn’t really ready for extraordinary experiences.

I wondered if I needed to pay my dues more to have those experiences. Sometimes I would curb my outreach and put a check on what I wanted to pursue because I thought, “I may not be ready or capable enough.”

I think it is good to get in over your head. Looking at it now, I think it is wonderful to take on a challenge. I wish I had taken on more challenges. I think I could have risen to the occasion. More than I would have thought going into it.

I am passionate about many things.  I’m passionate about my family and my children who are wonderful.  I hope to enrich their lives and teach them the value of work.  They participate in work with me.  They have their toy laptops.  They see how work enriches my life.  They’ll often pick up a pencil, put it to paper, and announce to me that they are working.  I hope they appreciate the privilege of working.  It is an important privilege that I hope everyone has the opportunity to pursue.

I’m passionate about really good food.

I am passionate about meeting people from all over the country and the world.  I recently worked on a book, Global Pharmacovigilance Laws and Regulations with some of the leading minds on food and drug safety. I worked with people all over the world including people in China, Australia, Egypt and Russia. It was a wonderful experience.  Technology allows us closeness with people all over the world. 

I am passionate about technology and innovation.  It is where I have centered my practice, working with clients who want and need policies that nurture innovation. I am very passionate about what the future holds and could hold.

I’ve been steeped in the political world my entire life, and so I know the importance of approaching it with what I call “a clear-eyed view.”  There are many good and decent people in politics who are working to change policy in thoughtful and legitimate ways.  At the same time, though, there are aspects of the political arena that are very dark. In many ways, it is a battleground.  It’s important to know that and to be mindful of it.  There are people in Washington whose sole purpose, it seems, is to tear certain people down. 

There is tremendous pressure on young people who come to Washington to choose a side and lock themselves in battle-mode against the “other side.” That is something I resisted.  I knew I wanted flexibility.  The zero- sum game in Washington doesn’t completely square with my personality (ENFJ).  I’m not confrontational by nature. Washington tends to incite people’s confrontational side. I worked hard to avoid that.  I didn’t brand myself as a soldier in one army versus the other. This allowed me flexibility to grow and be more thoughtful. 

I would encourage people who are interested in this area to keep your expectations in check a little bit.  Be mindful that for all the opportunity there is in Washington, there is a darker element.  It’s important to be wary of it and certainly not to get wrapped up in it.

Continue to be thoughtful in your approach to policy and engage people across the spectrum as you develop your own positions and make decisions based on them. If you surround yourself with people with differing opinions, it will make you a richer and more complicated person, which is always good.  It will allow you a broader perspective and allow you to make better policy.

I am partial to something like political science or English. 

Politics is overarching theme of many areas of study. I work a lot with clients in science and technology. You’d be amazed at how much politics steers scientific innovation and in some cases smothers it. I think there is a political aspect to every area of study.

History is fantastic. Part of me wishes that I had a Ph.D. in history. I think history is the guiding force of good decision-making. You can learn so much about our current predicament by seeing how history repeats itself, and by learning from past political decisions, their short- and long-term implications.

Looking at the budget challenges our nation will face in the foreseeable future, classes and majors in statistics and math are very helpful. I know pollsters who were math majors who have designed incredible mathematical models to calibrate the messaging that I put together. They study the response to words through quantitative evaluation, and by so doing play a very important role in modern political communication.

There is a place for anyone in any major to participate in the political process.

Part of it is embracing technology. I am constantly checking my Blackberry. I blur certain lines between work and family life. I think that is what is increasingly what domestic life is, will, and probably should be. Often, my children work right beside me.

I’ve had the privilege of having three children in the last four years and working the entire time. I feel that my children are very supportive of me.  It is extraordinary how much affinity they have for the work that I do. I often have to pull over when I’m headed to the park because I’ve had a flash of insight about how to shape, for example, the introduction to a paper I’m writing.  I’ll scribble on the back of an envelope, receipt or something in the car. My kids appreciate that it’s who I am and that’s what I do.  It’s great.

I have flexibility because my laptop, my mind, and my phone are the key aspect of my business. I’m grateful that I can work in an area that allows me the flexibility to be able to have a baby or spend time with my kids and still have those kinds of engines of work at play in my life.

I think that if I had pursued a corporate track early on where I needed to be in the office and have face-time and travel constantly, I think my career may have ended very abruptly.  This flexibility is very important. I think it is something that women should really embrace.  Technology in this new economy presents us with great opportunities. 

I was kind of born into a career in government. My father was kind of a jack-of-all-trades in politics. He ran political campaigns and issue campaigns. He did a ton of speechwriting. He worked for lawmakers. He was a lawmaker. Eventually, he landed as a lobbyist. I had the opportunity to accompany him to many events and fund raisers all through my childhood. He taught me the ropes from day one. He was chief of staff of Health and Human Services during the Reagan administration. Some of my earliest memories are of me and my siblings climbing all over the chairs and desk of the Secretary’s office.  It was home for us. My mother was a speechwriter at the time. Now she works for the Senate. It was a unique upbringing. 

When it came time to choose a major, I slipped into what was most comfortable in many ways. I majored in American Government at the University of Virginia. It was what had been most interesting and most familiar to me throughout my life.

Throughout college, I was working with my father on a number of different projects. I was already putting together key documents for clients well before I graduated.

Upon graduation, I jumped into the work world right away.

For the first two years after college, I traveled around the country with my grandmother, who was the national spokesperson for a national seniors organization at the time. She was 81 years old.  I learned the ins and outs of Medicare policy from the ground up, talking with groups of seniors in every possible setting in nearly every state in the U.S.  We organized petition drives and letter-writing campaigns.  We held press conferences on the steps of district offices and state capitols. I learned so much. It was fantastic and exciting.  At the same time, I was cultivating projects and clients. I was working closely with the White House Office of Public Affairs, organizing meetings and roundtables connecting seniors with major leaders in Washington, including the President.

Later, 2003, I officially launched my own firm.

One of my challenges was learning how to listen well.  It’s a learned skill, and it takes constant practice.

Another challenge was learning how to set my own preferences for a document aside and to allow my client’s preferences to fully predominate.  There have been times when I have spent hours putting together what I consider to be the perfect passage, only to have my client’s team of other consultants come in and strike it. That can be painful. Sometimes, clients inject grammatical errors or words that don’t quite seem to fit into a document I’ve drafted for them.  I’ve learned to check the impulse to argue or wince and instead follow the client’s lead.  I’m in a service business, and I need to be mindful of my client’s needs and wants at all times and above all. I learned this principle early on and it has helped me a great deal.