Meet Jacque Robinson-Baisley, currently the Director of External Affairs for Cordoba Corp. in their Education and Facilities Sector. Jacque also served as Vice Mayor and Councilmember for the City of Pasadena – that was recently devastated by the wildfires.

Jacque is a tenured leader with over two decades of experience in stakeholder engagement and government relations in the greater Los Angeles region and statewide. Her prior experience includes managing and directing community, electoral, and advocacy campaigns with labor unions, nonprofits, school districts, and philanthropy. She has been recognized for her expertise in policy development, community engagement, government relations, strategic planning, and special event planning and execution.

Jacque also served as Vice Mayor and Councilmember for the City of Pasadena from 2007-2015. Among her many accomplishments, she spearheaded the development and adoption of the Lincoln Avenue Specific Plan and served as a Commissioner for the Hollywood-Burbank Airport. She continues her personal commitment to public service as a current Board Member of Pathways LA, Pasadena Delta Foundation, and the National Women’s Political Caucus, Greater Pasadena Area.

Here is the link to the Go Fund page:

https://gofund.me/d50fce17

For this week's episode, we are rebroadcasting a webinar hosted by Maggie Mick and Brock Ingmire and features new National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL), Will Melofchik. Will was installed as CEO on January 1. He was formerly NCOIL's General Counsel. Previously, Will was a Regulatory Officer in the Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Unit at the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance and worked in private practice. Will is a member of the New Jersey and New York Bar, having graduated cum laude from Touro Law School, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Moot Court Honors Board. Will graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Connecticut.

Rep. Brian S. Evans serves as Speaker of the House for the 95th General Assembly.

He is serving his fourth term in the Arkansas House. He represents District 68 which includes the city of Cabot, as well as portions of Lonoke County.

For the 94th General Assembly, he served as Chair of the House Education Committee.

Speaker Evans is in logistics where he serves as President of L&L Freight Services, Inc. He is the former Chairman of the Board of the Transportation Intermediaries Association.

Speaker Evans previously served 10 years on the Cabot School Board. He attended the University of Central Arkansas and Arkansas State University. He was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity.

He lives in Cabot with his wife and two children.

David Avella is the Chairman of GOPAC, the Republican Party's premier organization dedicated to educating and electing Republican leaders. The GOPAC network invested nearly $33 million in the 2023-2024 election cycle. A seasoned communications professional and political leader, Avella has spent his career working to advance free enterprise, job creation and opportunity. He is a requested speaker on current national and state affairs, news headlines of the day and how to communicate effectively. Mr. Avella is a frequent guest on national television and radio, including Fox News, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, PBS, HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, and more. He is also a quoted source for national and local print, video, online and social media platforms. He delivered an address at the 2016 Republican National Convention reminding the Party that Aristotle was right when he said, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Mathew Lapinski is CEO of Crossroads Strategies, LLC. Mat represents a broad spectrum of clients across multiple practice areas. With two decades of advocacy experience, he is an expert in navigating Washington’s federal legislative and regulatory institutions.

Beginning as a lobbyist for health care and insurance interests, Mat now covers a broad array of policy disciplines including financial services, energy, health care, trade, education, and technology.

Called one of Washington’s most persistent lobbyists, Mat has spent his entire career dedicated solely to managing the legislative and regulatory process. He is adept at developing and implementing advocacy campaigns for corporate, association, and non-profit clients. He also provides risk management advisory services to clients seeking to better understand the impact of government action on business.

He has led client representations related to the largest federal interventions of the last 20 years including the response to the 2008 financial crisis, the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and the government’s response to COVID-19.

Prior to joining Crossroads, Mat was a Principal of the public policy practice at Dentons and part of the lobbying team at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

Mat is a 2002 graduate of Georgetown University.

Bill Kramer has been with MultiState since 2011. Recognized for his wide breadth of state legislative and policy knowledge, Bill oversees the firm's research services, advises clients on strategic government affairs initiatives, develops and manages coalitions and associations, and pens the weekly Morning MultiState newsletter, among other problem-solving endeavors.

At the onset of the 2020 pandemic, Bill was integral in quickly organizing internal resources to create MultiState's COVID-19 State and Local Policy Tracker, a resource library and data dashboard providing clients and the public with timely, accurate information on the state and local government responses to COVID-19. Subsequently, Bill has launched similar policy tracking projects focused on reproductive health care and artificial intelligence policy.

He is an experienced lawyer and association executive who served as deputy executive director of the Council of State Chambers (COSC) — the association of state chambers of commerce — and built the COSC Policy Center from the ground up. Bill is an active member of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) where he was a member of the Government Relations Section Council and chaired the State Relations Subcommittee from 2016 to 2019. Bill became a Certified Association Executive (CAE) in 2018 and is a member of both the State Bar of California and the DC Bar.

Bill has addressed and presented to dozens of trade and professional organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), Public Affairs Council (PAC), State Government Affairs Council (SGAC), and The Council of State Government (CSG). Major publications have quoted Bill as a policy and industry expert, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Politico, Pluribus News, and Governing Magazine.

His previous experience includes the U.S. Senate, California State Assembly, and Legislative Counsel's Office of California. Bill earned his bachelor's degree in history from Ohio University and his Juris Doctor from the University of Pacific McGeorge School of Law, where he served as Managing Editor of the McGeorge Law Review. Bill considers himself a policy generalist but has a passion for technology and infrastructure issues. He also enjoys developing future leaders, and as such, initiated and coordinates MultiState's internship program.

Leigh Walton is Vice President of Global Government and Regulatory Affairs for Pitney Bowes. As Vice President of the Global Government and Regulatory Affairs team, Leigh leads the company’s work in influencing public policy to increase opportunities for its shipping, mailing, and financial services businesses as well as to mitigate risks to those businesses. Before joining Pitney Bowes, Leigh was a consultant to companies in the technology, education, and health care sectors. She also served in several state government and political roles, including as Legislative and Political Affairs director for Missouri Governor Bob Holden. Leigh serves on the boards of the Public Affairs Council, a national nonprofit that provides training and education to government affairs executives, and the New England Council, the voice for the region’s business community on Capitol Hill. She served for ten years, with two as Co-Chair, of the Governor’s Prevention Partnership, a Connecticut nonprofit focused on mentoring the state’s young people.

Leigh holds a B.S. in Political Science from Truman State University in Missouri. She lives in Boston with her family.

Sarah Schlemeier Henke attended the University of Missouri from 2010-2014, where she graduated Cum Laude with her Bachelor of Health Sciences and minors in Psychology and Service Learning. After working in the nonprofit sector in grant-funded positions, Sarah was hired by a lobbying firm before transitioning to the Gamble & Schlemeier team. Seeing a need in advocacy, Sarah started her own company, Advocacy360. Advocacy360 helps with the development and building of coalitions and grassroots networks. She splits her time between the two companies, as Advocacy360 is housed in the same office as Gamble & Schlemeier. Advocacy360's clients include some of the largest trade associations in Missouri. Recently, Sarah completed a graduate program through the University of Missouri, obtaining her master's in Public Affairs from the Truman School of Public Affairs.