Deputy Executive Director

Posted on: 2011-06-13

SKILLS SUMMARY 

Senior legislative advisor, lawyer, advocate and administrator with more than twenty-five years of experience in both the federal government and non-profit sector.  I have developed and implemented domestic & global advocacy campaigns, and have significant expertise in policy and legislative analysis, writing and speaking.  I have many years of experience as an administrator and manager of legislative programs, research and strategy.  I have served as counsel to the House Committee on Government Operations where I had responsibility for numerous investigative hearings on fraud, waste and abuse in our nation’s war on drugs.  I served two Cabinet Secretaries in the White House as director of legislative affairs on counter-narcotics policy.  I bring exceptional strategic vision and leadership skills to the workplace.

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

 

DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Global AIDS Alliance

Washington, DC (January 2008-April 2011)

• Responsible for developing and implementing advocacy campaigns on policy & appropriations that impact global health and development in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Leadership role in reauthorization of PEPFAR; organized ngo coalition efforts to impact Obama transition; developed strategy to ensure US provides multi-year funds to Global Fund.
• Developed local-to-global advocacy network campaign model to implement Campaign to End Pediatric HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

 

SENIOR POLICY SPECIALIST

Center for Community Change

Washington, D.C. (October 2004-June 2007)

• Responsible for providing analysis of and strategic guidance on federal domestic policy for national non-profit dedicated to building better communities working for social and economic justice; primary focus on immigration reform.
• Represent CCC on the Board of Directors of the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CCIR) – national coalition of national and state immigration advocacy organizations. 

 

 

RESIDENT FELLOW, PROGRAM ON LAW AND GOVERNMENT

Washington College of Law

American University (September 2002-September 2003)

Washington, D.C.

 

LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR  

Open Society Institute (January 1998-August 2002) 

Washington, D.C.

• Developed a legislative office for George Soros with advocacy agenda related to key domestic initiatives of the Open Society Institute. 
  • Established the Criminal Justice Alliance, a strategic coalition comprised of national civil rights, human rights and criminal justice advocacy organizations to turn around the over-reliance on incarceration in the U.S.
  • Developed a legislative agenda for the Open Society Institute on drug and crime policy designed to attract bipartisan support. 

 

 

DIRECTOR OF LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS

Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)

Executive Office of the President 

THE WHITE HOUSE (June 1994-January 1998)

Washington, D.C.

• Responsible for the White House’s relationship with Congress on drug policy:  18 House & Senate committees have oversight of some aspect of counter-narcotics programs; 9 of 13 appropriations subcommittees are responsible for part of the drug budget.
• Prepared congressional testimony and draft bills on counter-narcotics program, policy and budget for ONDCP Director.
• Monitored and analyzed pending authorizing and appropriations legislation on drug policy.
• Developed strategy to implement White House’s annual National Drug Control Strategy and $17 billion counter-narcotics budget in Congress.

 

 

ASSOCIATE COUNSEL

C mmittee on Government cOMMOperations

Committee on Government Operations

United States House of Representatives (September 1989-June 1994)

Washington, D.C.

• Directed Committee’s oversight of all Federal counter-narcotics programs.
• Organized numerous investigations and hearings on drug treatment, drug prevention, law enforcement, international and interdiction efforts.   Tasked related investigations by the General Accounting Office, Office of Technical Assessment and Congressional Research Service.
• Drafted all oversight, authorizing and appropriations bills on drug policy for Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI); and Committee reports on investigations, hearings and legislation on drug policy.
• Organized Congressional Delegations to assess impact of drug policy overseas, e.g., Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Panama and Haiti. 

 

 

DIRECTOR

U.S. Programs (1981-1987) 

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

Washington, D.C.

• Directed domestic policy agenda and national programs within international human rights organization.  Programs included the National Moratorium on Prison Construction:  a national criminal justice program focused on sentencing policy, prison overcrowding and alternatives to incarceration; Children At Risk linked community organizing on children in poverty with national policy; and the Native American Community Board:  a community health project on fetal alcohol syndrome on the Lakota-Sioux Reservation.
• Responsible for Federal and State legislative efforts, research projects and national media work. 
• Edited national criminal justice journal. 

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  EDUCATION

Sabbatical:  Central America (1987-1988)

 

Golden Gate University School of Law

San Francisco, California (JD 1979)

Law Clerk, National Juvenile Law Center, Inc.

San Francisco, California

 

Hampshire College

Amherst, Massachusetts (BA 1976)

            Major:  Comparative Political Literature and Criticism

            Carnegie Fellowship:  Women and Career Options (9/74-8/75)

    COURSES TAUGHT

Washington Semester

Department of Global Health – MPH Program

George Washington University

Summer 2011

 

Legislative Drafting

Washington College of Law

American University

Spring 2003

 

Race, Class and Criminal Justice

Hampshire College

January 1986

 

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

Do-It-Yourself Law, HALT’s Guide to Self-Help Books, Kits & Software, Second Edition, 2006.  Contributing author. 

 

The Road to Reform:  Activists Need Fresh Strategies to Win, The Nation, September 20, 1999, pp.46-49. (A special issue:  Beyond Legalization:  New Ideas for Ending the War on Drugs)

 

The Politics of Federal Sentencing on Cocaine, Federal Sentencing Reporter, January/February 1998, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp.196-199.

 

The Role of the Department of Defense in the Interdiction of Drug Smuggling into the United States, Staff Report to the Committee on Government Operations, U.S. House of Representatives, December 1990. 

 

United States Anti-Narcotics Activities in the Andean Region, Thirty-eighth Report by the Committee on Government Operations together with Separate Views, U.S. House of Representatives, November 30, 1990.  (House Report 101-991)

  The Role of Demand Reduction in the National Drug Control Strategy, Thirty-ninth Report by the Committee on Government Operations together with Dissenting and Additional Views, U.S. House of Representatives, November 30, 1990.  (House Report 101-992)

 

Crime and the News Media: Final Report of the Crime and the News Media project,

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, Boston, MA, 1988.

 

Criminal Justice in Cuba:  A Report of the National Lawyers Guild, National Lawyers Guild, New York, June 1988. 

 

The Reduction of Imprisonment, Strategies for Social Change, International Conference on Prison Abolition, Criminologisch Instituut, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.  Conference Proceedings, June 1985. 

 

Editor, Jericho:  a national criminal justice journal, National Moratorium on Prison Construction, Washington, D.C., 1981-1987. 

 

 

 

 

 

PUBLIC TESTIMONY PRESENTED AT REQUEST OF ELECTED BODIES

 

Criminal Justice Policy

The Republican National Committee Party Platform

July 30, 1984

 

Oversight Correctional Policy

Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice

Committee on the Judiciary

U.S. House of Representatives

March 29, 1984

 

Federal Sentencing Reform:  H.R. 4827, H.R. 4554, H.R. 3128 and H.R. 2013

Subcommittee on Criminal Justice

Committee on the Judiciary

U.S. House of Representatives

March 21, 1984

 

Prison Construction:  Constitutional Amendment No. 1099

Committee on Constitutional and Administrative Law

Maryland House of Delegates

March 9, 1983

 

The Victims of Crime Act of 1983:  H.R. 3498

Subcommittee on Criminal Justice

Committee on the Judiciary

February 7, 1984

 

Prison Overcrowding:  H.R. 4450 and H.R. 6028

Government Activities and Transportation Subcommittee

Committee on Government Operations

U.S. House of Representatives

April 21, 1982

 

 

  

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

 

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

 

Leadership Council, Co-Chair, (2008-2010)

Global Action for Children

 

Criminal Justice Committee, Co-Chair, 2000-2002.

Section on Individual Rights & Responsibilities

American Bar Association

 

National Board of Directors, 1985-1994.

Offender Aid and Restoration – Washington, D.C.

 

Advisory Committee, 1986-1987.

Bicentennial Commemoration of the U.S. Constitution – Washington, D.C.

 

President, 1983-1985; Executive Board, 1981-1984.

National Lawyers Guild – Washington, D.C. Chapter