Washington DC Trip 2021 Speakers

Doug LaMalfa is a fourth generation rice farmer and business owner who has lived in Northern California all his life. Doug attended local schools and grew up learning the value of hard work and community service. Doug earned his degree in Ag/Business from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He now manages the family farming business originally founded by his great-grandfather in 1931.

Doug is a strong voice for the North State’s agriculture and resources based economy and for the first district’s farms and businesses.
A conservative leader, Doug LaMalfa has opposed increasing taxes and is a stalwart defender of California’s Proposition 13. With a proven
record of fighting on behalf of working families, Doug believes that taxpayers know better than bureaucrats and politicians how to spend and invest their own hard-earned money.

Doug is a strong supporter of private property rights and the author of a Constitutional Amendment to protect Californians against eminent domain abuse.
Water is the North State’s most precious natural resource and Doug LaMalfa believes in protecting our water rights and developing more water storage. He has continually advocated for increasing California’s water supply, supporting planned projects such as Sites Reservoir and the Auburn Dam. Doug has been a leader in opposing burdensome environmental regulations that place fairy shrimp and fish ahead of human needs.

Agriculture and Forestry have been the backbone of northern California’s economy for generations and Doug LaMalfa has made it a priority to educate his fellow Representatives on the importance of resource industries and the beneficial stewardship they provide. Doug successfully authored and passed California’s Forest Fire Protection Act of 2004 to allow landowners to make their rural lands fire-safe.

Doug LaMalfa’s firm beliefs are that government should do no harm and that limited government means government should do only what people cannot do for themselves, in the most efficient manner possible.
 

Kiel Weaver is the Senior Policy Advisor to the House Natural Resources Committee Republicans as well as the Republican Staff Director of the House Water, Oceans and Wildlife Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over western water policies. Prior to this, he was Associate Deputy Secretary at the Department of the Interior under the Trump Administration for the last two years.   While at the Interior Department, his portfolio was departmental operations as well as western water. Before that, he was the energy and natural resources policy advisor to House Speaker Paul Ryan for almost two years. For fourteen years prior to his job with the Speaker, he served as the Republican staff director for what was then the House Water and Power Subcommittee.

He served in various capacities in House Member and Senate personal offices as well as a stint in the lobbying world prior to his committee work. While he considers himself seasoned but "old" for the House, he still runs circles around millennial staffers and attributes that to his decade-long youth lacrosse coaching duties and his grandmaster lacrosse league play.
 

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman named David Raff, Ph.D., PE, D.WRE as Chief Engineer on May 28, 2020. Reclamation is a preeminent engineering organization with world-wide recognition for excellence in engineering and science. As the Chief Engineer, Dr.
Raff will direct Reclamation's engineering and scientific programs in Technical Services, Dam Safety and Infrastructure, Hydropower, Research and Development, and Water Planning.

The Chief Engineer will provide modern day leadership in the accomplishment of Reclamation's mission. It will complement Reclamation's ongoing role in the development, maintenance, and
operation of water and power infrastructure in the west.

Raff began his career with Reclamation providing technical leadership to assessments of Dam Safety and developing new and novel approaches to water resources forecasting and projections. He was also instrumental in developing Reclamation's implementation of the SECURE Water Act and drafting its first report to Congress, which identified the vulnerabilities and risks to water management in the major basins of the western United States. In recognition of work with Reclamation, Raff received the Department of the Interior's Superior Service Award.

Raff was named as Reclamation's Science Advisor in February 2014. In this position, he served as Reclamation's Scientific Integrity Officer — promoting data quality, peer review, and ensuring adherence to the Department of the Interior's Scientific and Scholarly Integrity Policy while overseeing Reclamation's Research and Development and Water Resources and Planning Offices. Raff had returned to Reclamation at that time after working as the Senior Hydrologic and Hydraulic Engineer with the Institute for Water Resources in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In that position, he worked with the water resources community to identify opportunities to incorporate climate variability information to promote reliable water resources management across the United States.

Raff works with multiple federal inter-agency committees, including the National Drought Resilience Partnership. He served as a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and American Geophysical Union. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Colorado and is board certified as a Diplomate, Water Resources Engineering by the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers.

Raff earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University, a Master of Science in Rangeland Ecosystem Science from Colorado State University and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University.
 

Robert Dugan is the Placer County Water Agency Director for District 4. Robert has been working on water supply and water infrastructure policy for most of his professional career. He was first elected to the PCWA in 2012 after previously serving on the Roseville Planning Commission for 10 years. Among his water roles Robert also serves on the Regional Water Authority, and the Northern California Water Association boards of directors and had played an active role in discussions as far back as the Auburn Dam and Auburn Pump Station, and more recent endeavors like the delta management, the delta twin tunnels conveyance, River ARC, and Regional Groundwater Bank.

Concurrent with his commitment to our regional water supply reliability, Robert also serves as the President and CEO of the California Construction and Industrial Materials Association and President of the Sierra College Foundation.

Dugan has over three decades of experience in advocacy and public affairs at the local, state and federal level, representing organizations on a variety of interests from local government to private industry. After 14 years of lobbying and state legislative service, Dugan spent the last 20 plus years representing construction, infrastructure, water, business, and academic organizations across the country at the local state and federal level.

Dugan’s career has spanned a broad range of public affairs roles including the leadership, development, and execution of public policy and advocacy programs, labor relations, coalition building, grassroots stakeholder development, and strategic interest based partnerships.

Dugan is known as a tireless advocate and catalyst for interest-based and outcome-oriented problem solving.
 

Jocelyn grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area but is very much a fixture in Placer County today. With a BA in journalism and communications as well as a law degree, Jocelyn shares her skills and talents throughout Placer County as the owner and principle of JBrand Marketing and does marketing and communications work for food/beverage, hospitality, tourism, and agricultural marketing industries, including her family-owned Lone Buffalo Vineyards & Winery in Auburn, and is the owner-publisher of the Placer Wine & Ale Trail Guide and SAC WINE & ALE. From 2010-2019, she also served as the District Director for Placer County Supervisor Jennifer Montgomery, District 5. Through her affiliation with Lone Buffalo and her company JBrand Marketing, Jocelyn also oversees her own label of wines, and is an active volunteer with many community organizations, including serving on the Board of Directors for The Placer County Visitor’s Bureau and The Placer County Vintners Association.
 

Jeff Short manages government affairs in Placer County and nearby jurisdictions for the North State Building Industry Association, the leading advocate for homebuilders in the greater Sacramento region. In that role, he fights to preserve and further the economic interests of BIA members while working to enhance the industry’s standing as a significant contributor to the regional economy. Previously, Jeff worked in the District, Capitol, and political offices of Senator Ted Gaines and former Assemblymember Beth Gaines. He holds positions on several boards and nonprofits in the community, including the Roseville City School District Foundation, Housing Trust Placer, the Sierra College Measure E Bond Oversight Committee, and the Roseville Transportation Commission, which he Chairs. Jeff, his wife Brittany and their two children live in Roseville.
 

Rich Gold is the leader of the firm's Public Policy & Regulation Group and focuses his practice at the intersection of complex policy and political issues involving Congress, the executive branch and the media. The Public Policy & Regulation Group has been ranked among the top law and lobbying firms in Washington by publications including American
Lawyer's Influence Magazine, Legal 500 United States guide, Financial Times and U.S. News - Best
Lawyers guide. Mr. Gold has been recognized as a top lobbyist in Washington by The Hill, The National Journal, Washington SmartCEO, Super
Lawyers, Washingtonian and The Washington Business Journal.

Mr. Gold served in the U.S. Senate for Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) as his advisor on environmental affairs where he worked on issues related to environmental side agreements of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). During the Clinton administration, he was a special assistant to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Carol Browner, with whom he helped develop the EPA's Superfund reform proposal and its administrative improvements package. Mr. Gold also served as a career lawyer in the EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance and Office of General Counsel, working on major rulemakings as well as significant Superfund cases.

Mr. Gold approaches political and policy problems from the perspective of campaign-style advocacy – forming, developing and executing issue-advocacy campaigns that incorporate lobbying, regulatory lawyering, traditional and social media, and grassroots engagement to break through the noise in Washington and achieve client goals. Mr. Gold has engaged for individual companies, trade associations and coalitions on the issues of the day ranging from climate change legislation and regulations and Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform to trade legislation, corporate tax reform, as well as major U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reform legislation and financial services legislation. He has helped form and manage numerous coalitions that have succeeded in passing major legislation, reducing the impact of major rules on industry sectors and achieving other critical policy goals.

Touting years of experience, Mr. Gold works in a broad array of policy areas, including environmental, life sciences, financial services, tax, trade and transportation. He has achieved significant successes in representing large cities and counties before Congress and the executive branch, helping local governments to achieve their funding and policy goals in the post-earmark era in Washington. He has strong client connections in the chemical, forest and paper, auto, food and energy sectors. Mr. Gold counsels clients on issues before the EPA, FDA, U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the financial regulatory agencies, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). He is a politically active Democrat who is a major fundraiser for Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and at the presidential level.

Mr. Gold has been with the firm for more than 25 years, joining the firm in late 1994 after leaving the Clinton administration. He became the leader of the firm's policy group in 1999 and has grown the group into one of the top advocacy organizations in Washington. In his management role, he developed a flatter, team-based group, incorporating senior professionals with lawyers and bringing new kinds of leverage that looks and feels more like a consulting practice than the traditional law firm partner-associate model. He brought strategic public relations and crisis communications capabilities into the firm to provide a broader array of services and one-stop shopping to general counsels and vice presidents for government affairs. He moved the lobbying practice to a fixed-fee model and created an alternative fee billing arrangement that eliminated billable hours, making the practice more attractive to senior professionals without law degrees from a recruiting perspective and for clients seeking a new value proposition in their Washington counsel during challenging economic times.

Mr. Gold has worked on a broad range of crises from the environmental and transportation sectors to healthcare and local government matters. His focus in the crisis space is on congressional investigations, federal regulatory and enforcement response, and crisis communications.

As a board member of The Bryce Harlow Foundation, Mr. Gold serves to educate young people on the importance of professional advocacy and increase the understanding of its essential role in the development of sound public policy.

In recognition of Mr. Gold's energy and environmental policy expertise, he was appointed to the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology of the National Academy of Sciences in 2009 and served until 2012.
 

Carol Garcia is a fifth generation Roseville resident who has solidified her roots in Roseville through a career in community banking and local volunteerism in civic government and non-profit organizations.

She attended Roseville schools and has a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University Sacramento.

Her community banking career spans over 40 years, working for several banks in Roseville. She is currently Vice President for First Northern Bank, concentrating in Community and Business Development.

Carol’s ties to the area can be seen throughout her personal and professional career. She has served as President of the Roseville Chamber of Commerce, President of Child Abuse Prevention Council of Placer County (Kids First) and President of the Rotary Club of Roseville. As a 20-year breast cancer survivor, she co-founded and currently chairs the Placer Breast Cancer Foundation, a non-profit organization raising $1.5 million in 2014 to fund breast cancer research at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Carol has served on various City of Roseville committees and commissions over the past 23 years, including the Grants Advisory Commission, Public Utilities Commission, Blueprint Efficiency for Solar Technology Committee (BEST Homes), Roseville City Council from 2007-2016 and Mayor from 2014-2016. Northern California Power Agency (NCPA) Board Member from 2008-2016 and Chair from 2014-2016. She was elected in 2016 and 2020 to serve on the Sierra Community College Board of Trustees and currently serves as Board Chair.

Carol has received numerous awards, including the 1997 Roseville Chamber of Commerce Athena Award. In 2008 she was recognized as one of Nabisco’s nationwide contest “Celebrating 100 Extraordinary Women”. She was the recipient of the North State Building Industry 2012 “Friend of Housing Award.” In addition, she was honored as the American Association of University Women’s 2016 “Women of Distinction Award”, recipient of the Northern California Power Agency’s (NCPA) 2016 “Public Power Award”, the Sacramento Metro Chamber’s 2015 “Peter McCuen Award” for Civic Entrepreneurs, and California State University Sacramento’s 2017 “Distinguished Alumni Award”.

Carol resides in Roseville with her husband of 40 years, Orlando, and they have two adult daughters and four grandchildren.
 

William H. Duncan IV was selected as the sixth President of Sierra College in 2011. President Duncan revitalized the college’s facility master planning efforts resulting in a 20-year plan to accommodate the future growth and needs of the Rocklin campus, culminating in the passage of a $350 million bond measure in June 2018. The Rocklin campus master plan consists of new and upgraded facilities, including a new science building, a public safety center, infrastructure improvements, expansion of student services facilities, and on-campus housing. Implementation of the plan has been accelerated because of the district’s fiscal soundness under President Duncan’s leadership. The college opened its first centralized Veterans Center in 2013, with the assistance of the Sierra College Foundation.

President Duncan is also leading the college through a re-engineering of programs and services to streamline student progress, ensure student success, remove the barriers to completion, and address equity gaps. A key component of this effort has a strong collaborative partnership with the K-12 school districts in the college’s service area.

President Duncan is actively involved at the state level and serves on multiple committees and task forces. He is currently the chair of the statewide CEO Student Centered Funding Formula Task Force, the Community College Facility Coalition (CCFC) Board of Directors, and the Association for California Community College Administrators (ACCCA) Committee for Finance and Legislative Advocacy. He serves on the board of the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA), the Community College League of California (CCLC) Advisory Committee on Legislation, the Placer County Economic Development Board, Valley Vision, and several Chambers of Commerce. Additionally, he is the co-chair of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council’s Competitiveness Council which promotes economic growth for the region. He is also a lifelong Rotarian.

Willy and his wife, Melody, reside in Newcastle. They have two sons, a daughter, a beautiful grand-daughter, and three dogs.
 

Phillip Escamilla serves as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer for William Jessup University, where he has worked since 2008. He oversees over 200 faculty teaching 1700 students who earn undergraduate, graduate, and associate degrees both in person and online at Jessup’s sites in Rocklin, CA and San Jose, CA. He also oversees the academic support and operations functions of the university, including student advising, student life, course and curriculum development, academic partnerships, and the registrar. Previously, he served in the roles of Associate Provost, the founding Dean of the School of the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and Chair of Public Policy for the University.

Previously, Phillip worked in a number of policy and advocacy roles for organizations supporting elected officials, including the California School Boards Association and the National Governors’ Association. He has led and served on teams that have advocated on state and federal issues impacting secondary and higher education and the workforce. He has also worked previously as an administrator for the Massachusetts Department of Education, and as a high school English teacher for the Boston Public Schools.

Phillip is passionate about training up the next generation of leaders to serve in policy-making and government roles, as programs under his leadership have graduated students who have worked in the halls of government in placements throughout California and the nation. He is the president of a non-profit organization that has trained students in leadership and the arts, both in a year-round academy and at events nationwide, and is a past board member of the Sacramento Chapter of the Association Public Administrators.

Phillip earned a bachelor’s degree from University of California at Berkeley, a master’s degree from Harvard University, and a law degree from Boston College. He and his wife Lisa live in Roseville, CA with their three children.
 

Since graduating from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois with a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Radiation Biology, Yvonne has spent close to 40 years in higher education. Beginning first with two post-doctorate research positions at University of Chicago and University of Illinois at Chicago. Afterwards she was hired by Chicago City Colleges to help further the Biotechnology Program at Truman College and build pipeline and program partnerships with industry and other Universities. It was at Truman College that she built a biotech laboratory and tissue culture facility which was the first of its kind at a two-year institution in the State of Illinois. During this time, she established the Center for Undergraduate Research and the Advancement of Technological Education (CURATE) which built a working partnership with the University of Illinois at Chicago Technology Park, housed in the Illinois Medical District and their subsequent startups.

From Truman College, Yvonne was recruited to be the Dean of the College of Sciences and Mathematics at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois where she helped to create several programs focused on undergraduate research and industry partnerships. From Harper College she was recruited by Chicago State University to be their Associate Vice President for Research Administration and hired by James Madison University to be their Vice-Provost of Research and Scholarship.

In 2018, Yvonne was hired by California State University-Sacramento as their Associate Vice President of the newly established Offices of Research, Innovation and Economic Development. In this capacity, Yvonne works to expand the research capacity of Sacramento State and link it to a range of academic, infrastructure and economic initiatives that advance the University’s connections to the community and with industries in the region.

Over the years, Yvonne has received several awards for her work and has built relationships with several industries, nonprofits and governmental agencies in Illinois, Virginia and now in California. To name a few, Dr. Harris built a relationship with the Governor’s Office in Richmond and served on the following state and industry initiatives: the Governor's Roundtable on Commercialization of University Bioscience Research in Virginia (Infrastructure Workgroup); Smart Cities Initiative; Women Mentoring Women; Governor’s Virtual Town Hall Meetings on Cyber Security with workshops and symposiums on Cyber Intelligence/Analysis and the MITRE-Universities Public-Private Collaboration with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. Currently, she serves on the Executive Board of the Council on Ocean Affairs, Science and Technology, the California State University Chief Research Officer Executive Committee; Power Inn Alliance Board; Mayor’s Workforce Collective; Mayor’s Technology Innovation Council; Inclusive Economic and Community Development Investment Committee and serves as the Chairperson of the Workforce Subcommittee.
 

Robert E. Norton assumed the role of Vice President and General Counsel of Hillsdale College in September 2014. He oversees the legal and regulatory needs of the College, and also works in the area of planned giving, trusts, and other fundraising efforts. Additionally, he teaches a course at Hillsdale on negotiations.
Norton received his B.B.S. from Walsh College and his J.D. from the University of Michigan. Before joining the College, Norton served as an officer and vice president for external relations at the Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he developed the

Bradley Impact Fund, the first conservative donor advised fund of its kind. Prior to his work at the Bradley Foundation, he was assistant general counsel at Chrysler, as well as in-house counsel for various automotive suppliers. He began his career at the Butzel Long law firm in Detroit, Michigan. He has taught law at Cooley Law School, Rochester College, and Madonna College, and lectured at the University of Michigan Law School and in its MBA program. He has been published in the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics and on National Review Online.

Norton and his wife Kathy have three children, one of whom is a Hillsdale College graduate.

Barry Broome serves as the first President & CEO of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council. Barry is responsible for leading community- driven efforts to attract, grow and scale new businesses; develop advanced industries and guide new job-creation strategies throughout the six-county region led by 40+ CEOs and 20 communities. Barry has been featured and interviewed for his work in global and national media outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, Forbes and CNBC, among other publications.