Speaker Bios

Heather McTavish Doucet

Heather McTavish Doucet is the Director of Government Relations for the International Foodservice Distributors Association (IFDA) located in McLean, VA. Before joining IFDA in 2006, Ms. Doucet worked for Hart Energy Consulting, a lobbying firm representing oil, gas and petrochemical clients. Before joining Hart, Ms. Doucet worked for five years with the American Public Works Association (APWA) where she worked on clean water, energy and environmental issues for public works agencies.  Ms. Doucet is a member of Women in Government Relations and the Women in Foodservice Forum. Ms. Doucet received a B.A. in International Relations from Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, VA.  While attending Randolph-Macon, Ms. Doucet interned for Rep. Herb Bateman (VA-1).  Ms. Doucet currently resides in Alexandria, Virginia. 

Laura Feldman

Laura Feldman brings her skills as a teacher to educating senior groups and activists across the country. She is a native Washingtonian. Demystifying politics, personalizing it and making it fun is one of her goals.

She has been a grassroots organizer for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare for over 20 years. Prior to coming to the National Committee, she organized national programming for the National Science Foundation under a special education grant, which propelled her out of the classroom, and into the public arena.

Ms. Feldman graduated from American University. She is the past president of the Southern Gerontological Society, on the Board of Trustees for the Florida Silver Haired Legislature, was the first Policy Chair for GROWS , The (Grassroots Organization For The Well Being of Seniors,) was a Board member of the Maryland Gerontological Association, the Virginia Council on Aging and NANASP (the National Association of Nutrition and Service Providers.) She was appointed to the Seniors Cabinet of the Montgomery County Council of Maryland. 

Leann Fox

Leann Fox serves as the Director of Washington Advocacy and Communications for the American Osteopathic Association. Leann serves as the osteopathic professions lead on multiple grassroots outreach programs, including the Grassroots Osteopathic Advocacy Link (GOAL) network, D.O. Day on Capitol Hill, EveryPatientCounts.org, as well as all Washington communications efforts, including media outreach and issue advertising. Having accomplished hill events with over 1,600 doctors and student doctors, Leann has built a suite of programs that complement and enable the department’s three full-time federal lobbyists.  

Leann has been with the AOA since 2003, coming to the Department of Government Relations from American Academy of Ophthalmology.  Leann holds a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design from University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Master of Arts in Political Management from The George Washington University.

Ann T. Gallagher

As president of Gallagher Consulting Group, Ann works with executives and organizations to achieve career and profit goals. With almost two decades of communications and strategic consulting experience, Ann has worked with a variety of groups including Fortune 500 companies, trade associations, non-profits and public sector entities.

She specializes in consulting with senior management, CEOs and boards of directors on strategy, critical planning, communications, public speaking/ image, market research, organizational development and legacy planning.  She also works with leadership teams within organizations to enhance overall job performance and productivity.

Ann spent several years of her career working in public relations and financial affairs for LimitedBrands, a multi-billion dollar retail company. She also served in leadership roles in communications and political affairs for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, a business trade association. As a consultant, she developed the first systematic research design to assess the voting behavior of state Supreme Court justices. Her approach is now used as a national model throughout the U.S.

Ann is a member of the International Coach Federation, the worldwide professional organization for business and personal coaches. She also received training from CoachU, the largest coach training organization in the world. She holds a B.A. in Journalism from The Ohio State University, and attended Capital University Law School.  Ann serves on the Advisory Board of Franklin University’s Organizational Communication School and the Public Relations Society of America’s task force on executive programming.

Ann believes it is crucial to take an active role in her community. She is a member of the association board of directors at the Columbus Zoo, and is an officer of the board of Leadership Columbus.  She is a graduate of Leadership Columbus and past board member of Project OpenHand and Volunteers of America.  Ann also supports other charitable organizations such as; American Veterans Relief Foundation, Volunteers of America, Bishop Watterson High School, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Godman Guild, and Partners for Citizenship & Character.

She has been recognized as one of the ”Forty under Forty” leaders to watch by Business First, and has been awarded for her volunteer efforts for a variety of community causes.

Brett Kappel

Practice Areas

Brett Kappel is counsel in the firm’s government relations group. His practice is focused on government relations and campaign finance law. Brett represents corporations and trade associations before the US Congress and various executive branch agencies in the development of public policy and legislation. He advises corporations and trade associations on the development of government relations programs, including the establishment and operation of political action committees and other ancillary tax-exempt organizations. Brett also advises clients on compliance with federal and state lobbying, ethics and gift law regulations. 

In addition, Brett advises corporations, trade associations, members of Congress and candidates for public office on federal and state campaign finance laws. He represents clients in Federal Election Commission enforcement proceedings, rulemaking and the advisory opinion process. 

Previous Work

Prior to joining Arent Fox, Brett was counsel in the government relations and lobbying group at the Washington, DC, office of a large law firm.

Professional Activities

Brett is a member of the American Bar Association, where he serves on the Election Law Committee of the Administrative Law Section.

Publications/Presentations/Recognitions

Brett is a regular commentator on campaign finance issues. His views have appeared inThe Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Roll Call, Politico and The Hill. In 2009, he was named one of Washingtonian's "Top Lawyers for Campaigns and Elections."

Bar and Court Admissions

District of Columbia Bar

Virginia Bar

Education

University of Virginia School of Law, JD (Dillard Fellow), 1990 

State University of New York at Albany, BA (summa cum laude), 1980

Kristine Kilbride

Kristine Kilbride is the PAC and Grassroots Leader for Genworth Financial, Genworth is a global financial security company dedicated to providing confidence and financial peace of mind today, while helping protect against life’s uncertainties. 

Kristine moved to Genworth Financial in 2005 where she started the PAC and in the 2010 election cycle the PAC had over $535,000 in receipts.  Previously, Kristine was the PAC Manager at The Boeing Company, while at Boeing she saw an increase in the PAC of over $650,000 an election cycle.  Prior to working at Boeing, Kristine was the Manager of Public Relations for the National Roofing Contractors Association, where she managed ROOFPAC for more than two years.  Kristine started her career in PAC management as the PAC Coordinator at the National Automobile Dealers Association.  Kristine moved to Washington, D.C. for a two-year stint with Senator Kit Bond in 1994.  She got her start in politics working on a 1994 U.S. Congressional Campaign in Missouri’s Ninth Congressional District.  She also runs PAC PALS, a free networking group of over 300 PAC professionals.  

Kristine hails from the great state of Missouri where she takes great pride in her Missouri Tigers.  She graduated from the University of Missouri with a bachelors degree in Political Science in 1993.  She is married to Patrick Kilbride and they have one daughter, Katie.

Meaghan Killion Joyce

Meaghan Killion Joyce is the Political Affairs Manager for International Paper’s Government Relations team based in Washington, DC. Meaghan joined the company in 2006 and has grown the profile of International Paper’s political programs during her tenure.  

Meaghan’s key responsibilities are focused on leading International Paper’s political involvement programs, including its political action committee IP-PAC and grassroots and voter education program IP Votes. During her tenure, Meaghan has led a major revitalization and re-branding effort of both the PAC and grassroots programs which resulted in a record-breaking 229% growth in PAC membership and 60% growth in PAC receipts as well as doubling participation in the company’s grassroots program. International Paper was recognized as a leader in political engagement as the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Showalter Group's Political Involvement Innovation Award for the company’s successful 2008 Why Vote? voter education and mobilization campaign.   

Before joining IP, Meaghan spent nearly nine years working for the International Dairy Foods Association on a variety of projects including PAC, grassroots and state affairs. Meaghan also worked on Capitol Hill in the Office of Senator Frank Lautenberg, her home state Senator.  

Meaghan serves in several leadership positions in many of the top political involvement professional groups. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Business Political Action Committees (NABPAC) and is an Executive Committee member and former Co-Chair for the Innovate to Motivate National Conference for Political Involvement Professionals. Meaghan is the 2011-2012 Chairman of the Business Industry Political Action Committee (BIPAC)’s Prosperity Project Steering Committee as well as a member of the BIPAC Board of Directors.  

Meaghan graduated cum laude from the Catholic University of America in 1997 with a Bachelor’s degree in politics and a minor in philosophy. She currently resides in Baltimore, MD with her husband Rob, son Aedan and their chocolate Lab Mr. Bean.   

Kelly H. Knowles

Kelly Knowles serves as Director of Political Affairs for the American Bakers Association (ABA).  ABA is the national trade association that represents over 200 baker and allied member companies that together manufacture over 80% of the wholesale baked goods sold in the United States.  ABA represents member companies such as Flowers Foods (Sunbeam, Cobblestone Mill, Nature’s Own), Weston Foods (Arnold, Thomas & Entenmann’s), Sara Lee Bakery Group, McKee Foods (Little Debbie), Pepperidge Farm, Interstate Brands (Wonder, Hostess), General Mills and Krispy Kreme.

In her role as Director of Political Affairs, Kelly serves as Director of American Bakers PAC, the Political Action Committee of grain based foods.  Since joining ABA in 2002, Kelly has worked diligently to revitalize and strengthen the PAC through increased ABA member participation and fundraising.  Election cycle receipts in 2006 reached an all-time ABA high. 

Kelly also serves as the primary staff liaison for the ABA Executive Leadership Development Committee (ELDC), which works to develop future leaders of the baking industry.  Active participants of ELDC are introduced to the legislative and regulatory process, the role of the association in Washington, pro-business political activities and baking industry trends.

Kelly has volunteered for George W. Bush’s 2000 and 2004 Presidential Campaigns as well as Elizabeth Dole’s 2002 Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Richard Burr Senatorial Committee in 2006.  

Kelly holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington; a Graduate Certificate in PACs & Political Management and a Masters of Arts in Legislative Affairs from the George Washington University.  She is a Goldsboro, NC native and is an active member of the North Carolina Society of Washington, The Society of Bakery Women, the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Government Relations Section Council and PAC Pals.

Sarah Longwell

Sarah Longwell is the Managing Director of the American Beverage Institute (ABI), a Washington D.C. restaurant trade association that protects the on-premise dining experience and defends the right to drink moderately and responsibly prior to driving. ABI opposes sobriety checkpoints, efforts to make alcohol-sensors standard equipment in cars, and alcohol tax increases. At ABI, Sarah exposes and vigorously counters the campaigns of modern-day prohibitionists who seek to target responsible adults in an effort to criminalize moderate social drinking. 

Sarah has delivered expert testimony before numerous state legislatures, appears frequently in the national media, and is quoted in hundreds of news stories each year. 

Dr. Kelton Rhoads

Dr. Kelton Rhoads is a psychologist, influence consultant, and adjunct professor at both University of Southern California and the military’s Special Operations School. His area of study is influence, which covers persuasion, compliance, indoctrination, & propaganda. In over 270 presentations to professional audiences regarding influence topics, he has addressed NATO, United Nations staff, the JFK Special Warfare Center & School, congressional staff, and a variety of grassroots organizations. He teaches the influence component of the Psychological Operations Officer’s Qualification Course at Ft. Bragg. His clients have included the American Heart Association, the National Restaurant Association, Compaq Computer, Dow Chemical, Institute for Defense Analyses, the US Forest Service, Southwest Airlines, US Chamber of Commerce, and many others. At USC's Annenberg School for Communication, Rhoads teaches influence-related courses like Persuasion, Campaigns, and Influential Communication in the Marketplace.

Amy Showalter

What do International Paper, the American Hospital Association, Southwest Airlines, Pfizer, the American Heart Association, and the National Association of REALTORS have in common? They have all turned to Amy Showalter for her expertise and motivation to elevate their grassroots advocacy and PAC programs. Amy is a grassroots and PAC productivity expert who founded The Showalter Group to help associations and corporations increase their grassroots and PAC effectiveness. In fact, over 85% of her long term consulting clients have experienced an increase in budget, staff, and senior management recognition after collaborating with Amy.

Amy has galvanized thousands of grassroots evangelists and staff for her clients who want to advance their cause politically. For nine years she directed the efforts of the highly acclaimed Nationwide Insurance Civic Action Program (CAP). During her tenure, over 2,000 public affairs professionals across the country ranked Nationwide’s program as one of the top two corporate grassroots programs in the country. (Ed Grefe and Martin Linsky, The New Corporate Activism)

She is the author of the just-published ”The Underdog Edge: How Everyday People Change the Minds of the Powerful. . . and Live to Tell About It” (Morgan-James). Over 200 of her articles have been published in such publications as the Washington Times, Politico, The Christian Science Monitor, Roll Call, The Dallas Morning News, and the Baltimore Sun, to name just a few. She is also the author of “105 Ways to Build Relationships with Your Elected Officials”, which has sold over 17,000 copies.  Over 3,000 government relations professionals subscribe to her Roots of Success newsletter. 

Amy has worked “inside” the system as a Legislative Aide to former Ohio Senate President Richard Finan.  She then lobbied for the small business members of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. It was at the Chamber where she readily recognized her limitations as a lobbyist and recognized her talents as a grassroots motivator.

Amy has served as a faculty member at the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Organization Management, and has been a  guest lecturer at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.  She is a Past Chairman of the American Society of Association Executives Government Relations Section Council, serves on the Board of The Christ Hospital’s Family Advisory Council, and is the Co-Founder and Producer of Innovate to Motivate®,  the largest conference of its kind for political involvement professionals. 

Amy has a BA in Political Science from Wright State University and an MSA in Human Resources Administration from Central Michigan University.  

She and her husband, Randy Boyer, co-exist with their two Siberian Huskies, Houdini and Jackson, and Finnegan the mystery dog in the greater Cincinnati area.

Heather Smith 

Heather Smith is Executive Director of Rock the Vote, a national organization dedicated to the political engagement of young people.  

Under Smith's leadership during the past two election cycles, Rock the Vote built new tools and refined best practices for the continued engagement of young voters, setting the highest voter registration records in both midterm and presidential elections in the organization's 20-year history.  In 2010, Smith led Rock the Vote in its largest midterm election effort that generated more than 300,000 voter registration applications, engaged thousands of volunteers, and increased youth turnout in targeted precincts.  This work built on the successful efforts of 2008, when Rock the Vote registered a record-shattering 2.2 million people.  

Prior to Rock the Vote, Smith founded and directed Young Voter Strategies, a nonpartisan project in partnership with The Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University with support from The Pew Charitable Trusts.  Young Voter Strategies provided the general public, political parties, candidates, consultants and nonprofits with data and research on the youth vote as well as best practices to effectively mobilize young people. 

In 2004 Smith served as national field director for the Student PIRGs New Voters Project, the largest nonpartisan grassroots effort ever undertaken to register and mobilize young voters. Across the country, the New Voters Project, under Smith’s direction, registered nearly 600,000 voters and conducted an intensive, multi-faceted get-out-the-vote effort to bring these newly registered voters to the polls on Election Day. Youth turnout was 11 percentage points higher than in 2000.

Prior to her work at the New Voters Project, Smith was an organizing director for Green Corps’ Field School for Environmental Organizing in Boston. 

Smith received a B.A. with honors in economics and public policy from Duke University. In 2006, Smith was named one of Campaign & Elections magazine’s Rising Stars for her work with young voters. She was also named one of Esquire Magazine’s Best and Brightest of 2007.  

Betsy Vetter

Betsy Vetter is the North Carolina Director of Government Relations for the American Heart Association. As Director of Government Relations, Betsy serves on the AHA/ASA Grassroots Visioning Team and Obesity Prevention Policy Work Group.  She also serves as the Chair of the North Carolina Alliance for Health, the statewide coalition working to improve the health of North Carolinians by advocating policies that promote wellness and reduce the impact of tobacco use and obesity.  

Prior to taking over as the Director of Government Relations, Betsy was the American Heart Association Mid-Atlantic Affiliate Grassroots Director.  During this time she tripled the number of active grassroots advocates in the MAA You’re the Cure network.  Betsy is a student of numerous courses offered by the Showalter Group.  She has gained national attention as a presenter at the Innovate to Motivate Conference® and in 2004 was named to the All-Showalter Team.  Currently Betsy serves on the Innovate to Motivate® Advisory Committee. 

She has been an employee of the American Heart Association since 2002 and is committed to improving the lives of all North Carolinians by working for policies that build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Prior to her coming to the AHA, Betsy had a diverse work experience that includes owning a small business and real estate appraising. A native of Pennsylvania, Betsy moved to North Carolina in 1985.  She has studied at the University of Pittsburgh and Guilford Technical Community College.   Betsy currently lives in Raleigh with her husband Joe and is the mother of 3 daughters and grandmother of 2 grandchildren.