ON THE MOVE

People

by Gregg Sangillo and Winter Casey

Sat. May 10, 2008


Interest Groups

Frances Fragos Townsend, former assistant to President Bush for homeland security and counter-terrorism, is joining the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as a consultant to President Thomas Donohue. Accustomed to long hours as a top White House aide, Townsend says that working independently will allow her to spend a few more breakfasts with her two young sons. In addition to her advisory role with the chamber, she will consult for other groups.

Townsend--the only child of two "hardworking parents," neither of whom graduated from high school--served as the Coast Guard's first assistant commandant for intelligence. She also held senior positions at the Justice Department under three administrations.

The Wantagh, N.Y., native attributes her success to hard work, tenacity, and a "progression of really incredible bosses who really took an interest in my development."

Working as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y., had a big impact on Townsend, 46, because she was often required to say, "I represent the people of the state of New York." "When I first said it, I felt this awesome feeling of responsibility," she recalls. "It was a really stark reminder to a very young person right out of school that the role of a prosecutor is to see that justice is done."
--Winter Casey

Media People

Julie Kearney, who is joining National Public Radio as director of public policy and legislation, sings in the Choral Arts Society of Washington with her husband, Eugene Leung. She is a soprano, and he is a tenor. Kearney also plays the piano and has a baby grand in her dining room underneath the chandelier.

Her love of music is nothing new. Kearney majored in music at Mount Holyoke College and once worked for the American Symphony Orchestra League. But after earning a law degree from Catholic University's Columbus School of Law, she turned to law and technology.

Kearney, 40, last served as the senior director and regulatory counsel for the Consumer Electronics Association, where she was a registered lobbyist. She will also be a lobbyist in her new position. Earlier in her career, Kearney was associate counsel of international affairs at MCI, and an associate attorney at Haley Bader & Potts. She also interned at the Federal Communications Commission, and she worked for Baker & McKenzie as an associate in Ukraine in the summer of 1996.

Kearney is a dual citizen of Ireland, although her parents were born in the United States and she grew up in Maine. She lives in Lake Barcroft in Fairfax County, Va., which she likens to "heaven on earth." She says that her husband, who works at the Export-Import Bank, is a great cook. They enjoy kayaking on the lake.
--W.C.

Hill People

Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., has promoted his longtime aide, Brian Sutter, to legislative director. Sutter first worked in Camp's office as an intern in 2001 during his junior year at Hope College. After graduating, he returned to the office as a staff assistant and became Camp's legislative assistant.

"I thought I was going to go to law school like everyone else in this town, but after being an intern I decided to come back" to Capitol Hill, explains Sutter, 28. He enjoys working on such issues as health care, Social Security, and human resources. Sutter, like Camp, is a native of Midland, Mich. His wife, Markeen, is also from Michigan and was his high school sweetheart; they are expecting their first child, a girl, this month. Sutter likes sports and plays on a men's baseball team in Northern Virginia.

Other changes in Camp's office include the promotion of legislative correspondent David Thurow to legislative assistant. Adam Pradko, a staff assistant, will become Camp's new legislative correspondent.
--W.C.

Growing up in Rochester Hills, Mich., Joanna Foust became well acquainted with the auto industry. Now she will work in Washington for the sector full-time as legislative director for automaker Daimler. Foust, who was legislative director to Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., starts in her new position on June 2.

The job is "a great fit for me," she says. "I got the opportunity to work on a lot of issues that affected the car industry in Mr. Camp's office. I knew a lot of their issues working here in Washington." Foust, who is expecting her first child, also feels that the Daimler post will offer more-reasonable working hours for a new mother.

Once an aspiring auteur, Foust fell into politics after dropping out of film school at Florida State University. While pondering her next move, she volunteered on Florida Republican Jeb Bush's first gubernatorial campaign in 1994. She was subsequently hired by the campaign and later landed a job in Washington with then-Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich. Foust also worked on a Judiciary Committee immigration subcommittee that Abraham chaired. She spent the past seven years in Camp's office, starting as a legislative correspondent and working her way up to legislative director.

Foust, 34, is a sports fan and remains loyal to Detroit's pro teams, including hockey's Red Wings and basketball's Pistons, both of which are still alive in the playoffs.
--Gregg Sangillo

Lobby Shops

Working on K Street is not a surprising career development for Gina Mahony, given her role with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Mahony, who's now working as a policy director with law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, was a liaison to the business community for the House Democratic leadership and was deeply involved in enlisting K Street support for Hoyer's efforts to win back the House for the party in 2006.

"Our growing realization [was] that the business community had clearly put all their eggs in the Republican basket," Mahony says, adding that she helped "to get the [donation] ratios from corporate PACs ... to more accurately reflect Democratic support." Another part of her job, she says, was encouraging K Street to steer money to pro-business Democrats in competitive seats.

Mahony, 39, spent the past five years with Hoyer and 11 years total on Capitol Hill. She has also worked in senior legislative positions with then-Reps. Cal Dooley, D-Calif., Tim Roemer, D-Ind., and Harold Ford, D-Tenn.

An Annandale, Va., native, Mahoney graduated from the University of Notre Dame. She initially worked in advertising in Chicago and later was an administrator at Boston University, where she also earned a master's degree in education policy.

In her free time, Mahony coaches seventh- and eighth-grade girls basketball at Holy Trinity School in Georgetown, with help from her dad, Bob Mahony. She also likes to scuba dive and recently spent a week in the Cayman Islands, where she encountered a barracuda on one of her undersea swims.

In another recent hire at Brownstein Hyatt, Josh M. Reid, son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is now a shareholder in the firm's Las Vegas office. Josh Reid is part of Brownstein Hyatt's natural resources group and will work on issues involving the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act. Reid previously worked as a shareholder with law firm Parsons Behle & Latimer.
--G.S.

Allison Collins, a former congressional liaison for the National Nuclear Security Administration, is working with Lewis-Burke Associates, a lobbying firm that represents institutions involved in scientific and engineering research and education. Among other things, Collins will advocate for Rutgers University, the University of Illinois, and Georgia Institute of Technology. "We're not a big earmarking firm. We really try to push for our clients to compete for stable sources of funding," she says. Collins, who has a background in national security and nonproliferation issues, was most recently a budget and policy specialist for the chief financial officer at the Energy Department. She also worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2003 to '05.

Her work at NNSA involved ensuring proper funding and highlighting the role that the agency plays in nonproliferation issues, such as detection of Iran's nuclear capabilities. "I worked really hard to bring that to the attention of the Homeland Security committees. A lot of [the panels' members] were very unaware of how much work we were doing," Collins says. The NNSA, a semi-autonomous agency within the Energy Department, was set up in 2000 and is responsible for managing and securing the nation's nuclear weapons complex.

Collins, 31, grew up in San Diego and earned degrees from the University of San Francisco and Georgetown University. She's a runner in her spare time, and she participated in last year's New York City Marathon.
--G.S.

Interest Groups

Rita Aguilar has joined the Justice at Stake Campaign, a watchdog group that tracks political and special-interest pressure on America's courts, as director of the federal courts program and legislative counsel. In those roles, she will try to expand the organization's efforts by bringing more groups into the fold to support "diversity on the bench."

Aguilar spent the past five years at the American Bar Association, where she last served as state legislative counsel and did "indirect lobbying." She also worked as a policy specialist for the Texas Senate. Aguilar was born in Texas and received her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law. Through the university, she spent a year in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh, where she received a master's in law.

Aguilar, 36, sits on the Virginia Council on the Status of Women and the Arlington County, Va., Human Rights Commission. In the past, she was involved in a number of Democratic groups, including the Democratic National Committee's National Lawyers Council and the Voting Rights Institute.

She lives in Arlington and enjoys following international soccer, running, and volunteering in her spare time.

In related news, Jesse Rutledge has left Justice at Stake to serve as vice president for external affairs at the National Center for State Courts.
--W.C.

Shorts

Homeland Away From Home ... Pamela Turner has been named managing director in the Washington office of BKSH & Associates Worldwide, a lobbying and public-affairs firm, where she will focus on such issues as homeland security, defense, and telecommunications. Turner comes to BKSH after working on domestic policy for John McCain's presidential campaign. She recently spent three years at the Homeland Security Department as assistant secretary for legislative affairs. Turner previously worked for 14 years as a senior vice president for government relations at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. She served as legislative director to then-Sens. John Tower, R-Texas, and Edward Gurney, R-Fla., and also worked in the White House legislative-affairs shop during the Reagan administration. BKSH recently named M.B. Oglesby, another former member of Reagan's legislative-affairs team, as firm chairman. Oglesby officially succeeds Charles Black, who is working full-time on the McCain presidential campaign.

Help Under Fire ... Law firm K&L Gates has named Matt T. Morley as a partner in its Washington office. Morley was a co-managing partner of the D.C. office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, where he represented clients under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department. Former Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., and former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh are both of counsel in the K&L Gates office.

Victory Fund ... Laura Esquivel is the latest hire for the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. She'll fill the newly created position of senior vice president for political affairs. Esquivel was previously the director of research and issues marketing for the liberal group People for the American Way and the PFAW Foundation.
--G.S.

Have a tip for National Journal's People column? Contact Gregg Sangillo or Winter Casey at 202-739-8400.

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