11-10-2001

PEOPLE: People for November 10, 2001

Interest Groups


The American Association for the Advancement of Science has appointed a
new chief executive officer: Alan I. Leshner, who's currently director of
the National Institute on Drug Abuse, one of the National Institutes of
Health. Leshner, 57, is leaving NIDA after nearly eight years. "I'm
particularly interested in public appreciation of science-to show people
how science can enhance the quality of their lives," he explained.
The former psychology professor came to Washington in 1979 and held
several senior positions at the National Science Foundation. He spent six
years at the National Institute of Mental Health, including two years as
acting director, before taking over at NIDA in 1994. Leshner said his
areas of concentration at NIDA included "enhancing the focus on the
neurobiology of addiction" and "educating the public that
addiction is a health issue as well as a science issue." In 1999, he
launched the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network, which
tests the effectiveness of various drug addiction therapies. Leshner, who
will take over his new post in December, will also serve as the publisher
of AAAS's peer-reviewed journal, Science. He replaces Richard S.
Nicholson, who is retiring from the position he has held since
1989.


David W. Liddle knows former Rep. Steve Bartlett, R-Texas, from Liddle's
days as a legislative assistant about a decade ago on the then-House
Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs Committee. Now Liddle, 36, is working
for Bartlett, the president of the Financial Services Roundtable: Liddle
just became the group's director of communications and media relations.
Right now, Liddle says, "the main issue that is on everybody's mind
is terrorism insurance." The roundtable and other organizations want
the federal government to act as a "backstop" against major
insurance losses stemming from terrorist attacks. "They've got their
arms around acts of nature-tornadoes, hurricanes. This is a human act, and
there is scant actuarial analysis to price that act," Liddle says.
The roundtable is also pushing for passage of an economic stimulus
package. Liddle has a background in public relations. He served as a
managing director at the Washington office of Hill & Knowlton Inc.
and, most recently, was a vice president at Washington-based
Nichols-Dezenhall Communications Management Group.


Two new arrivals started work on November 5 at the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce. Reta J. Lewis, a former partner with the law firm Greenberg
Traurig, has become a vice president and counselor to President Thomas
Donohue. She will head a new program that focuses on building ties with
female- and minority-owned businesses. From 1993-95, Lewis, 48, served on
the staff of then-President Clinton as a special assistant for political
affairs and as political director for the Northeast and Southern regions.
"I've always had a very keen interest in chamber programs and
outreach in the business community," Lewis said. "I think this
is an opportunity to reach beyond what we've been doing." Also
starting work is Rolf Lundberg Jr., the organization's new chief lobbyist.
Lundberg, 42, was lured to the chamber from the hospitality company
Marriott International Inc. He is a former legal counsel to Senate
Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and to former Senator and
presidential candidate Bob Dole, R-Kan. Currently, Lundberg explained,
"Trade-promotion authority and the tax stimulus package are very high
on our radar screens."


At the Bar


"Civil rights is very personal to me," said Bill Lann Lee,
former head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Lee, an
Asian-American, said he remembers his immigrant parents being treated
poorly because of their clothing and accents. Clinton's nomination of Lee
for the post of assistant attorney general for civil rights was
controversial. Although his name was submitted repeatedly for Senate
confirmation, it was never put to a vote. Disagreements on the Judiciary
Committee over Lee's record and his positions on affirmative action
prevented his confirmation. President Clinton kept Lee, 52, in the
position through recess appointment. Now, Lee is continuing his work on
civil rights law as a partner at the national law firm Lieff Cabraser
Heimann & Bernstein. He chairs the human rights practice and co-chairs
the employment practice. One of his first cases involves hundreds of
thousands of Mexican contract workers who came to the United States to
work on farms and railroads during World War II. "They were forced to
put 10 percent of their earnings in Mexican bank accounts, and many of
them never got their savings returned to them," he said. Lee will
split his time between the Washington office and the firm's headquarters
in San Francisco.


Around the Agencies


Toni Casey, the new director of intergovernmental affairs at the Small
Business Administration, first ran for public office in 1988 after reading
that three seats on her city council in Los Altos Hills, Calif., were
open. "I thought that you just sent out a postcard and got
elected," she says. "I was horrified when I found out that nine
people" were running. She learned fast, though, and Casey served
several stints as a councilwoman and mayor of Los Altos Hills while
developing her career as a biotech lobbyist and, later, as a business
development consultant for Internet start-ups. In 2000, she switched her
party affiliation from Democrat to Republican and became co-chair of the
Bush-Cheney campaign in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, as well as a
pro-abortion-rights delegate on the Platform Committee at the Republican
National Convention. Now she's switching coasts to join the SBA, where she
will focus on expanding public-private partnerships, working with trade
associations to reach more small businesses, and coordinating with other
agencies. Casey, who declined to give her age, is joined at SBA by Richard
Spence, the new director of legislative affairs.


HILL PEOPLE


Back when Kristan Mack was living in Arizona and getting ready to go to
college, she had no idea what career she wanted to pursue, until the day
she attended an event with her father-pro football hall-of-famer Tom
Mack-and met Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "I credit him as being the
catalyst, piquing my interest in a world I knew nothing about," Mack
said. She went straight to the Hill after college and interned for Rep.
Sam Johnson, R-Texas. She ended up spending nine years on Johnson's staff,
moving up the ranks to become legislative director. Now, she has a new
boss: Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo. Mack, 32, is his new deputy
chief of staff. When she isn't working on a bevy of legislative issues,
Mack, a second-degree black belt, can sometimes be found at her Arlington,
Va.-based martial arts studio, Capitol Tang Soo Do, where she is the chief
instructor. Says Sen. Campbell, a former Olympic competitor in Judo:
"I look forward to a great working relationship with Kristan, but if
we don't agree, I'm sure she can hold her own."


After eight months with the Bush Administration, Chris Paulitz is back on
Capitol Hill, this time as communications director for Rep. Mark Foley,
R-Fla. Paulitz, a former sports reporter for The Columbus Dispatch, became
interested in politics after spending a summer in Washington running a
sports group for former presidential candidate Ralph Nader called FANS. He
got his first taste of the Hill about three years ago, when he served as a
press aide to House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts, R-Okla. In
February 2000, he left to join the Republican National Committee as a
spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign. For Paulitz, 26, life on the
campaign trail meant "very little sleep, very bad eating habits, and
no exercise," he recalled. After spending a month in Florida watching
the vote recount, he was finally rewarded for his lost sleep: a job in the
Bush Administration as a special assistant for media relations at the
Environmental Protection Agency. "It's an honor to be chosen to go to
the Administration and help the President through his transition," he
said. "But I knew sooner or later that I wanted to come back to the
Hill." Former House Ways and Means Committee hearing clerk Bradley
Schreiber also joins Foley's staff, as a legislative counsel.


Techno-File


Yahoo! Inc. has a new Washington presence in Deputy Director of Government
Relations Leslie Dunlap. Dunlap, 32, comes from Cable & Wireless, a
telecom service provider, where she spent three years as director of
congressional affairs. She got her start in tech policy as a legislative
assistant for Rep. J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., before he became Speaker.
Hastert was a member of the Commerce Committee's then-Telecommunications
and Finance Subcommittee. In 1996, after five years with Hastert, Dunlap
became the legislative director for another member of the telecom panel,
then-Rep. Rick White, R-Wash. Dunlap was attracted to the job because
White was in the process of co-creating the joint congressional Internet
Caucus, which Dunlap ended up staffing. In addition, White's district
included tech giants such as Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo of America Inc.
Dunlap's take on Internet and tech policy: "I wanted to pursue an
area of policy in which a lot had not yet been decided. It's a new area of
law, and it still brings up a lot of questions."


Image-Makers


Consultant Tom Gibson has said goodbye to his solo practice and signed on
as a senior director with the White House Writers Group, a
Washington-based message-management firm. Gibson, 46, should have no
trouble fitting into the firm founded by speechwriters for Presidents
Reagan and George H.W. Bush: He previously held a number of positions in
the Reagan White House, including director of White House public affairs.
He has also teamed up on past projects with Managing Director Clark Judge.
"The capacity for creativity ... is amazing," Gibson said of his
new employer. After leaving the Reagan Administration, Gibson worked from
1990-96 with the Wexler Group, a Washington government affairs firm, where
he was senior vice president and director of communications. Next he
served as the director of special projects for the company then known as
MCI Communications Corp. Gibson originally came to Washington as a
freelance cartoonist; his work has been featured in The Washington Post
and other publications.


Carrie Blewitt, the new senior director for Dittus Communications, started
her career as a summer intern at CNN's Washington bureau. When she
returned to CNN in search of a job after graduation, the human resources
director remembered her and she was hired. Blewitt worked her way up from
entry-level to producer over the course of two years before being invited
to help start Northwest Cable News in Seattle. She returned to Washington
two years later and produced The Virginia Report and The Truth About Money
for Newschannel 8 but then decided she wanted a calmer life. "It was
time to change from the 24/7 on call, on beeper, and working
holidays," she says of her switch to public relations. Blewitt, who
is about to turn 30, made the change in 1999, first joining Ignition
Strategic Communications and then joining Weber Shandwick Worldwide, where
she was an account supervisor. At Dittus Communications, she'll be
focusing on consumer and technology accounts.


In the Tanks


The National Center for Policy Research for Women & Families, a
Washington-based think tank established in 1999, has made three new hires.
Former Hill staffer Celine Clark is now serving as CPR's director of
policy and communications. Clark, 24, comes from the office of Rep. Gerald
D. Kleczka, D-Wis., where she was communications coordinator. Previously,
she served as an aide to Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis. The CPR staff is
preparing for a December conference on breast cancer and will soon launch
a public education campaign about lumpectomies, a procedure to treat
breast cancer that involves the removal of the lump in the breast rather
than the entire breast. "Many women don't have access to all the
information on treatment options," Clark said. Also new to CPR is
Senior Medical Policy Analyst Jae Hong Lee, who has practiced medicine at
Yale University and performed clinical research at UCLA, and Director of
Development Gianna Tripodi-Bhise, a former director of corporate and
foundation giving at Easter Seals of Southeastern Pennsylvania.


Erin Heath

National Journal