My Credentials.  Over the years, some have called me a trailblazer or pioneer because I am the first African-American woman to join the predominantly white male field of lobbying as a senior principal in what is now the top independent lobbying firm in the city, Van Scoyoc Associates (VSA). 

I worked at VSA for about 14 years, helping it to grow from a small boutique company to an industry leader.  In 2007, I left VSA and returned to the practice of law as an Equity Shareholder at Polsinelli Shughart PC – a national law firm with office locations in almost every region of the U.S.   The firm consists of over 500 attorneys dedicated to over 7,000 clients. 

In my current position, I serve as a senior member of the Polsinelli Public Policy Group and manage a diverse government affairs client portfolio which requires continuous monitoring of a $3 trillion federal budget and securing several billions of dollars in federal appropriations for client projects annually. Beyond appropriations and budget related activities, under the Public Policy Group, firm client categories include advertising, grocery manufacturers, pharmaceutical, municipal governments, universities, several national member associations with approximately 200,000 members combined, major corporate and small business interests, and others.  Areas of expertise include federal appropriations and budget policy, biomedical research, broadcast and telecommunications, education, employment and job training, energy and environment, homeland security, housing and community development, health and human services, private equity, public safety, small business, science and technology, transportation and public works, and other areas.

Before moving into the field of lobbying and public policy, I honed my skills as a Senior Advisor in the Clinton Administration, providing counsel to Education Secretary Richard Riley on a plethora of education policy matters.  Prior to receiving this Presidential appointment, I served as Chief of Staff of the Education Cluster for the Clinton-Gore Transition Team, working directly with Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole.

Working for President Clinton was a logical next step for me, following a five-year stint on the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee.  Appointed to that position by Congressman Louis Stokes (D-OH), from 1987-1992, I had senior staff responsibility for monitoring and advising the Member and committee on policy matters cutting across the total agency spectrum and totaling over $1.7 trillion in budget authority.

In addition to my experience on Capitol Hill and the Clinton Administration, I spent my early years as an attorney practicing communications law at Gage & Tucker in Kansas City, Missouri and the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington, DC.

I received my Journalism and Law degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia.  I am a member of the Order of the Coif and belong to the Missouri Bar.

Who I Am. Being a Lawyer and a Lobbyist is not who I am; it is what I do for a living. 

The reality is that I am just a small-town girl from a small-town part of the world – Decatur, Illinois -- smack dab in the middle of the middle of America.  If Chicago represents America’s heart, then Decatur would be its navel – a reminder of where industry and agriculture met, mated and generated the economic sustenance for our gestating national economy.  Soybeans, corn, cows, pigs, seasonal tornadoes, and the blackest most fertile dirt you ever did see, provided texture for an otherwise flat terrain.  Where would any of us be without a navel, or more specifically, that umbilical cord that provides the life juice that most essentially and initially connects mother to child?

Literally and figuratively, Decatur can be compared to a physical impression in the belly of the nation whose most useful purpose often is described in the past tense.  Current and former companies operating corporate offices and manufacturing plants in Decatur include Firestone Tire, Archer Daniel Midland, AE Staley, Borg Warner, CB&Q, and Wagner Castings – and of course the railroads that ensured effective and timely delivery and distribution of products coming from the middle of America.  Not only did the farming and manufacturing activities (collectively) serve as a link in the economic sustenance chain that helped to feed and fuel the nation, but they also served as the community’s lifeline to the future.

Growing up in the Midwest, in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere, amongst the corn and soybean fields, I often wondered why so few books and movies documented experiences of people like me -- Black folks in America who call Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, Michigan, Nebraska, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kansas and other parts of the Midwest home.   As a little girl, I remember looking through literature for stories documenting the Midwestern experience, and remember the frustration I felt when having to read so many accounts based solely on the Southern and East Coast experiences.  After all, I knew very little about Mississippi and knew even less about Harlem, and had a hard time relating to events, lifestyles and places that seemed far-removed from the cornfields of Illinois, and the delicate integration of the Midwest.

Both my mother and father were born before the Great Depression.  The brutality of Jim Crow and the ravenous appetite of the boll weevil created complementary incentives to leave the South.  During the 1940s, like so many families, my relatives migrated north from Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas for better paying jobs and more freedom.  My mother’s side of the family had picked cotton in the Mississippi Delta, and lived in little towns such as Como, Crenshaw, West Memphis, and Long Town, Mississippi, and Dobbins, Tennessee.  Growing up in the South, she and her four sisters moved around quite a bit, living with my maternal grandmother’s relatives at times and with my mother’s father’s family alternatively.  My mother’s mother, Grandma Lizzie, worked as a domestic in Memphis for an affluent white family involved in local politics, sending money to her folks for the care of her little girls.  By their accounts, the money was scarce and the days were hard and long.  Most of the stories I heard growing up centered around picking cotton and chasing food.  The cotton sacks where always heavy and the food was never enough.

These stories left an indelible impression on my mind, heart and psyche.  Over time, my mother’s story proved to be more than the prologue to my own biography; her story served as the launching pad for my dreams.

If you would like to know more about my story,  and what inspired me to become a lobbyist and to help those typically not engaged in the federal process, please join my mailing list and I will be sure to share it with you as we continue the launch of the site.