Lobbying World

• Theresa Cardinal Brown has joined the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) as its director of immigration policy. Brown will lead the group’s Immigration Task Force. Before coming to the BPC, Brown was president and CEO of her own firm, Cardinal North Strategies. She has also held various policy positions at the Homeland Security Department and spent nearly five years as director of immigration and border policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

 • Jessica Layson is headed to the American Academy of Physician Assistants to become director of congressional and political advocacy. Layson will lobby on healthcare, appropriations and veterans issues on Capitol Hill. She will also manage the PA PAC, the group’s political action committee. Layson was legislative director for Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), and before that worked for former Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.).

• Deborah Gladney has been hired as a senior account executive at Outreach Strategies, a communications and public affairs firm. Gladney originally joined the firm in 2012 as an American University graduate fellow. She is based in Albany, N.Y. and will work with new and existing clients there. Before joining the firm, Gladney was a HR business and communications consultant for Spirit AeroSystems.

• Amy Mello has joined Freedom to Marry, the pro-gay-marriage group, as its field director. Mello has been a long-time organizer and field strategist. Mello has been a field director for five state campaigns in support of same-sex marriage, including in Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts. 

• The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) has brought on two new staffers. The trade group has appointed Andy Blocker as its new executive vice president of public policy and advocacy. Blocker recently was a managing director in the U.S. Office of Public Policy at UBS. In addition, SIFMA has also brought on Carol Danko as a vice president of public affairs. Danko was a communications director and policy adviser for Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.). 

• Jim Coon has been named senior vice president of government affairs and advocacy at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Coon was staff director for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as well as majority staff director for the House Aviation Subcommittee.