Project: Government Affairs

I had a lot of contacts at the Minnesota state capitol, and after a year of working together, the CEO of the mental health nonprofit I was working for at the time agreed to let me utilize them for our benefit.

I retained a lobbyist who trained and mentored me, learned new reporting software to track relevant bills, created a plan for both short-term and long-term goals, designed a flyer to give to government officials and staff, attended hearings, and met with Senators, Representatives, and staff on both side of the aisle to lobby for our program, all while continuing my responsibilities as the organization’s only marketer.

Three weeks later, COVID shut everything down. I spent the rest of the 2020 congressional session pivoting from offense to defense, adapting our goals, using the relationships I had built to help ensure that mental health efforts were still being funded and that new avenues for mental health care were made available to the public.