Consultants and Trainers

The Honorable Brian Baird

Trainer

Congressman Brian Baird served six terms – (D WA-3, 1999-2011) – in the United States House of Representatives. He holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Wyoming, practiced clinically for 20 years, chaired the Department of Psychology at Pacific Lutheran University, has written three books, served as a University President at Antioch University Seattle, and was an advisor to the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

In Congress, Dr. Baird served on the Committee on Science and Technology, chairing the Energy and Environment subcommittee, and the Research, Technology and Education subcommittee. He also served on the House Budget; Transportation and Infrastructure; and Small Business Committees. Among his many legislative accomplishments, he was the primary author of the STOCK Act, which prohibits insider trading by Members of Congress.

Dr. Baird has traveled extensively and is fluent in Spanish. As founder of 4Pir2 Communication, Baird currently advises leading law firms, businesses leaders, congressional offices, patient advocacy organizations, and political campaigns on communication strategy, public policy, and ethics. Baird now chairs a non-profit organization working to establish the National Museum and Center for Service (NMCFS) near the National Mall in Washington, DC. The NMCFS is dedicated to honoring and telling the inspiring story of the millions of individual Americans and organizations who serve in countless ways at home and around the world.

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Marissa Brooke Brewer

TRAINER

Marissa has over 16 years of lobbying and legislative advocacy experience at the local, state and federal levels. Originally from Texas, Marissa began her career as a legislative aide in Washington DC for a U.S. Congressman, advising him on a variety of issues, including education policy. While in D.C., she gained extensive experience in legislative advocacy, federal lobbying, politics and elections. Marissa relocated to central Illinois from Washington, D.C. in 2009 to work for Illinois State University as the Associate Director of Development and Governmental Relations where she served as the University's liaison to Illinois members of Congress and their staff, federal agencies and other organizations. She transitioned to the University of Illinois System to help lead the legislative advocacy efforts in 2013. She is currently the Associate Director of Advocacy in the Office of Governmental Relations for the University of Illinois System. In this role, she leads the legislative advocacy efforts which includes managing Illinois Connection, the University of Illinois System's grassroots advocacy program of over 30,000 people. Through this program, alumni, students, faculty and friends serve as advocates for the System to ensure support from the local, state and federal governments.

Marissa currently holds a master's degree in Political Science from the University of Illinois Springfield, an undergraduate degree in Public Administration from Texas State University, a certificate in PAC and Grassroots Management from the Public Affairs Council and a certificate as a Master Online Teacher Advancing Practice and Innovation in Online Learning from the University of Illinois Springfield.

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The Honorable Cheri Bustos

Trainer

Former Congresswoman Cheri Bustos is a former senior member of House leadership with a long career in both the public and private sectors, Bustos brings 20+ years of experience in politics, journalism, healthcare and communications.

While representing Illinois’ 17th Congressional District for the past 10 years, Bustos held powerful roles in leadership, serving as Co-Chair of the Steering and Policy Committee during her past term in Congress; Co-Chairing the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, playing a key role in Democrats taking the majority; and chairing the General Farm Commodities and Risk Management Subcommittee of the House Agriculture Committee. Bustos served on the House Committee on Agriculture for her full tenure in office; six years on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; and four years on the House Appropriations Committee. While on the House Appropriations Committee, she served on some of the most powerful subcommittees: Defense; Labor, Health and Human Services and Education; Energy and Water; and Military Construction and Veterans Administration. Bustos also served in the Democratic House leadership, serving as Chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). Additionally, Bustos is the founder of Build the Bench, a program focused on identifying and training individuals interested in running for office at all levels.

Bustos is a Spring 2023 Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland in College Park, and a Master’s in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois at Springfield

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Matt Glassman

Trainer

Matt joined the Government Affairs Institute as a Senior Fellow in 2017. He has taught courses on and off the Hill on American government, congressional process, congressional-presidential, and congressional leadership. Prior to joining GAI, Matt worked on the Hill at the Congressional Research Service (CRS) for ten years. His portfolio included congressional operations, separation of powers, appropriations, judicial administration, agency design, and congressional history. He was also detailed to the House Committee on Appropriations as professional staff for the Legislative Branch Subcommittee in FY2010 and FY2011.

Matt graduated from Hamilton College and went on to earn his Ph.D., M.A., and M.Phil from Yale University.

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Kathy Goldschmidt

Senior Fellow

Kathy Goldschmidt is a strategic thinker who has been engaged in plotting the Congressional Management Foundation’s course for more than 25 years. She joined CMF in 1997 after working in the House of Representatives. She was involved in much of CMF’s research during her tenure, with a focus on legislative capacity, strengthening and technology use. She was integral to seminal CMF projects, including State of the Congress to benchmark and measure congressional modernization over time and The Future of Citizen Engagement to envision ways to modernize the relationship between Senators and Representatives and their constituents. She also helped lead the Resilient Democracy Coalition and the Congress 3.0 project, which considered different aspects of congressional capacity-building and modernization. She was co-creator and lead researcher for the Congress Online Project—through which CMF developed the Gold Mouse Awards for congressional websites and social media practices—and the National Science Foundation-funded Connecting to Congress project. She was also instrumental in envisioning and planning for the Partnership for a More Perfect Union.

Kathy led a number of contracts with the Congress to develop strategies for legislative information and communications technologies. One of these was an intensive, two-year project to develop a 10-year vision and strategy for technology in the House of Representatives, on which she testified before the Committee on House Administration.

Kathy also co-created the Communicating with Congress project and has authored or contributed to dozens of research reports, publications and articles on Congress. She retired from CMF in 2023 to travel full time with her family and continues to serve as a consultant to CMF on select projects.

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Susie Gorden

Trainer

Susie Gorden is Associate Vice President at Van Scoyoc Associates, working primarily with the firm’s Philanthropy Practice to help develop and implement strategies for individual foundations to talk about what they do, and the positive impact they make in communities all across the country.

Prior to joining VSA, Susie served as a Vice President for the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) for over seven years where she worked with House and Senate offices to train staff and deliver professional development services. Before CMF, Susie worked for Representative Diana DeGette covering labor, environmental, energy, and transportation policy. She was also the Policy Director for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America where she successfully secured increased funding to ensure more quality mentoring relationships for America's at-risk youth and developed a grassroots framework to coordinate the efforts of the organization's 300 agencies. Susie was also a liaison to Congress for Capitol Advantage, where she interacted with dozens of congressional offices and advocacy groups to improve constituent communications and citizen engagement.

As a graduate of the University of Colorado, receiving a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Journalism and Mass Communication (with Honors), Susie wrote for the Campus Press and interned at The Boulder Daily Camera.

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Mark B. Harkins

Trainer

Mark joined the Government Affairs Institute as a Senior Fellow in July 2013, having guest lectured numerous times for more than a decade, and serving on Capitol Hill for 17 years. Mark worked for two Members of Congress before joining the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology as a Professional Staff Member and later as Legislative Director for the House Science Committee Democrats. He served as Senior Legislative Assistant to Representative David Price (D-NC), where his portfolio included appropriations, before serving as Chief of Staff for Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC).

Following his tenure on the Hill, Mark was a government relations professional for more than five years where he focused on the representation of corporate, nonprofit, and government clients before Congress and the Executive Branch. Mark has extensive experience with the federal appropriations and budgeting process, as well as issues handled by the Financial Services, Science, Ways and Means, and Homeland Security Committees. He has taught classes on communicating with Congress, congressional structure and operation, committee practices and procedures, legislative politics, and budget and appropriations process. Early in his career, Mark was the Sports Information Director at Swarthmore College. In addition, he was once a co-owner of a fantasy sports statistics service.

Mark earned his B.A. in Economics from Swarthmore College.

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Peter Loge

Consultant

Peter Loge is an Associate Professor and Associate Director in the School of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University, a Senior Fellow at the Agirre Lehedakaria Center in Bilbao, the founding director of the Project on Ethics in Political Communication, and a strategic communication consultant. Loge is also an affiliated faculty member at the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication at The George Washington University and an Associate Fellow at Timothy Dwight College at Yale University.

Prior to being appointed to the faculty at GW, Loge served as a Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration in the Obama administration, a Presidentially appointed position the Commissioner created for Peter. In this role, he worked on some of the administration’s top public health priorities including the Cancer Moonshot, the Precision Medicine Initiative, the opioid crisis, and others.

Loge is a graduate of Emerson College and holds graduate degrees from Syracuse University and Arizona State University. He is a recipient of the Walter Littlefield Distinguished Speaker and Rhetoric and Communication Award, the Phi Alpha Tau Distinguished Alumni Award, the Heart of Lion Athletics Alumni Award, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Emerson College.

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Kari Moe

Consultant

Kari Moe, PhD, has played a central role in the legacy of three historic leaders in progressive politics: Mayor Harold Washington of Chicago, US Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, and Rep. Keith Ellison of the 5th Congressional District of Minnesota. As a long-serving Chief of Staff and Deputy Mayor, she led both the campaign and governing organizations for all three political leaders.

Kari’s first big organizing victory occurred when she led a successful effort to reinstate Professor Paul Wellstone’s job after the college did not renew his teaching contract due to political activism.

Kari believes that elected leaders must combine vision, values, courage and know-how. She has effectively guided strategy, policy agendas and communications. Kari has built high-performing organizations for cutting edge leaders who want to make a positive difference in peoples’ lives and expand progressive political organizing.

Kari’s work is focused on the following areas:

  • The transition from campaigning to progressive governing for newly elected officials at the federal, state and local levels and their staff.
  • How to lead boldly and effectively as a newly elected official, including building high performing teams, providing strategic leadership, and contributing to a durable Democratic majority.
  • Recruiting and training Rising American Electorate young leaders to be elected officials and their senior staff over the next decade. Train at least 100 Chiefs of Staff.

Kari is an accomplished strategist, organizational leader, policy analyst, trainer and coach. In addition to Democracy Partners, she is the Founder of Lead Blue, LLC, and the Political Strategy Fellow for the New Leaders Council. She is also a Faculty Fellow for The George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership.

Kari earned a PhD in Public Leadership at The George Washington University, a Masters Degree in Urban Planning and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BA from Carleton College.

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Meredith Persily 

Management Consultant

Meredith Persily is an executive coach, consultant, facilitator and instructor, who specializes in global organizations that cross the public and private sectors. She serves on the faculty of American University's Kogod School of Business and School of Public Administration where she teaches courses on leadership, management, high performance teams, and action learning.

Previously, Meredith served as CMF's Director of Training and Consulting, where she coached Chiefs of Staff and Members of Congress. She was Director of Executive Education of the Corporate Leadership Council of The Corporate Executive Board. In this capacity, she worked with hundreds of the leading corporations around the world, and delivered training programs in over ten countries. Meredith started her career as a telecommunications market analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Meredith graduated with an MBA, with concentrations in strategy and organizational behavior, from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and earned her BA with honors from Brown University. She earned a Certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University and was credentialed as an Associate Certified Coach by the International Coach Federation. She is certified in The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®), The Leadership Circle Profile™, Appreciative Inquiry, the Hay Group's ESCI tool, and the Team Diagnostic™ Assessment. She serves on the Board of Directors of Pueblo a Pueblo, a nonprofit supporting child education, health and nutrition in indigenous communities of Guatemala. Meredith is fluent in Portuguese and Spanish.

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Jen Pihlaja

Management Consultant

Jen Pihlaja is the founder of Rowan Strategies – a facilitation, strategic consulting, leadership development and coaching practice that advances diverse initiatives for political, advocacy, and entrepreneurial groups. Rooted in her decades of leadership experience, Jen is deeply committed to shifting the way individuals and teams approach professional development – through designed-centered processes, Jen ensures people feel more resilient, confident, and sustained in their work.

As a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, she is passionate about creating structure and space for people to bring their best selves and strengths to all of the work that they are doing. Jen enjoys working with leaders at all stages, from new managers to senior leadership, and partnering with other consultants and facilitators to collaborate on strategic consulting and training projects.  She brings a genuine appreciation for the privilege and responsibility that clients entrust to her, while offering challenges and requests that stretch leaders. Jen is continually investing in developing and honing skills that will enhance her work.

In 2019, Jen founded and ran the pilot programs for the Blue Leadership Collaborative, a paid training and professional development project focused on retaining women and people of color in campaign management roles. She previously co-founded and was the managing partner of McKenna Pihlaja, a woman-owned media firm, focusing on campaign messaging and storytelling. Jen has run races with a special focus on electing women to office, worked in political leadership at EMILY’s List and the DCCC, and worked in various public and private sector roles. Most importantly to her, Jen has been a trainer, mentor and advocate throughout her career.

Jen has trained or lectured at organizations such as Arena, Emerge, American University Institute for Women & Politics, GW Graduate School of Political Management, International Progressive Campaign Forum (IPCF), UK and AUS Labour Party, Campaign Tech Forum, C&E Magazine, DCCC, EMILY’s List, and Women in Film and Video. Jen is a graduate of Hope College and received her Executive Certificate in Facilitation from the Institute of Transformative Leadership at Georgetown University of Continuing Studies.

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Laura D. Scott

Management Consultant

Laura Scott worked for CMF from 1991 to 1996 and has been consulting for CMF since then. Laura has led well over 100 confidential assessments for House and Senate offices on matters such as Strategic Planning, Communication, Team Building, District Office Operations, and Mail Systems. Prior to joining CMF, Laura worked in a Senate office for eight years.

Currently, Laura is the Director of the Center for Leadership & Organizational Change at the University of Maryland, College Park. In this role, she works with Deans, Department Chairs and other campus leaders to help them plan and implement organizational change. She received her Masters in Organizational Development from The American University/NTL.

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Rick Shapiro

Management Consultant

Rick Shapiro previously spent 19 years at CMF and served as Executive Director from 1990 to 2006. During that time he facilitated strategic planning retreats, conducted confidential office assessments and performed other management consulting services for congressional offices.

Rick is the author of Frontline Management, a guidebook for running district and state offices. He is also the author of several chapters in CMF’s management guidebook, Setting Course, and co-author of Working in Congress: The Staff Perspective. He has appeared on the CBS Evening News, CNN, C-Span, CNBC, and National Public Radio to discuss congressional management issues and is frequently cited in newspaper articles.

Before coming to CMF, Rick held senior staff positions in both the Senate and House, and worked as a management consultant for Coopers & Lybrand and the State of Arizona. He received his Masters in Public Administration from Princeton University.

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Liz Sears Smith

Trainer

Liz Sears Smith is the Managing Director of Kent Strategies. She brings more than 25 years of management and strategic planning experience bridging the private and public sectors. Liz served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy White House Cabinet Secretary, managing key issues between the Cabinet and senior White House staff. In this role, Liz managed day-to-day policy development and problem solving on a large range of issues.

As Chief of Staff for former Congressman Rahm Emanuel, Liz set up and managed all operations. On a daily basis she worked closely with public and private sector constituencies. Her operation was always singled out as one of the most efficient and effective on the Hill. Prior to her tenure on the Hill, Liz served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of Commerce, managing a division of The U.S. Commercial Service.

Liz is a member of the Public Policy Committee for Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. She serves on the Leadership Council for the Impact Center, a leadership and mentoring non-profit. Additionally, she served on the selection panel for the White House Fellow’s Program and is a member of Northwestern University’s Council of 100. Liz is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and received her MBA from the JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

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Askia Suruma

Trainer

Mr. Suruma came to Capitol Hill in 1993 the same year he graduated from Georgetown University--as an intern in the office of Congressman Martin Frost (D-TX). He was promoted to serve in several capacities in that office, including Systems and Mail Manager, Press Secretary, and Legislative Director.

He also worked as Special Projects Director for the House Democratic Caucus while Congressman Frost was Caucus Chair. In between his Hill assignments, Mr. Suruma spent 1998 and 1999 as a Public Information Officer at the Small Business Administration.

In 2001, he became the Democratic Deputy Chief of Staff on the House Rules Committee, where he served until 2007. From 2007 to 2014 he was first Deputy Chief of Staff and then Democratic Staff Director for the House Ways and Means Committee. He recently returned to Capitol Hill to serve as Chief of Staff to Representative Marc Veasey after several years as Director of Federal Relations at George Washington University.

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Julie M. Strandlie

Trainer

Julie M. Strandlie is the principal in her own public/government affairs small business, Strandlie Advocacy, LLC, which focuses on federal and state advocacy. Julie is a lawyer, lobbyist, and grassroots advocate with a background representing non-profits, large and small associations, higher education, and business organizations on a wide range of issues, including tax, high-tech immigration, labor/employment law, and access to justice matters.

Over the course of her career, Julie has worked on Capitol Hill, for prominent law firms, and a variety of professional associations. During her 12+ year-tenure as the American Bar Association’s grassroots director and legislative counsel for civil legal services, she successfully led lobbying and grasstops efforts to establish bipartisan support for organization’s legislative priorities. Julie built the ABA’s grassroots program and organized “ABA Day in Washington,” the highly regarded, three-day fly-in for ABA leadership, key contacts, and state/local bar associations and their stakeholders. She later served as Legislative & Public Policy Director for the National Employment Lawyers Association. Prior to joining the ABA, Julie had her own law practice during which time she served as the University of Florida's Washington Representative.

Julie is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Florida. She recently completed her second four-year term on the Fairfax County (Virginia) Planning Commission.

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James Vaughn

Special Consultant

As an advisor and consultant to CMF, James Vaughn brings more than 15 years of experience in political advocacy and the uses of new technology to the Partnership for a More Perfect Union. His past clients include Capitol Advantage/Knowlegis working with media companies, informal groups and average citizens to develop tools to measure influence. James also co-developed Power Rankings, which ranked members of Congress for power and effectiveness according to 23 different variables.

Prior to Capitol Advantage, James served as the Deputy on President Bush's USA Services E-Government initiative, developing federal-wide standards for citizen-to-government communications with a focus on new and emerging technologies. He also served on the task force to set standards for websites across the federal government to make them more citizen centric. This was a natural outgrowth of his work as Director of Government and Politics for America Online (AOL) where he conceived and created GovernmentGuide.com and many other online tools and products to help citizens connect with elected officials and government agencies at all levels. He was a contributing author to "Crossing the River: The Coming of Age of the Internet in Politics and Advocacy."

These projects grew out of research James conducted while securing his Master's in Public Administration at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. There he focused on the Internet and the delivery of service to the public and private sector as well as the impact of the Internet on public policy decisions and innovation. Prior to his Master's degree, James was a political and public affairs consultant in California and ran dozens of campaigns at the local, state and congressional level.

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