Reta Jo Lewis Named to Lead Congressional Affairs at GMF

WASHINGTON, March 1, 2016 – The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is pleased to announce that Reta Jo Lewis was named the new director of congressional affairs on February 29.

Lewis brings over 25 years’ experience in governmental relations as an attorney, diplomat, and businesswomen to her new role at GMF. Previously, she had been a senior resident fellow with GMF’s Transatlantic Leadership Initiatives since January 2015, based at the Washington headquarters.

“Reta Jo knows first-hand how important cooperation across the Atlantic and at various levels of government is to effective policymaking,” said GMF President Karen Donfried. “We are excited to have her transition into the important role of congressional affairs director for GMF, where she can draw on her immense experience and GMF’s intellectual resources and European networks to build strong ties between the U.S. Congress and GMF.”

Lewis has assumed this role in time to shepherd a congressional delegation to the 11th convening of GMF’s Brussels Forum on March 18-20, 2016.

Prior to joining GMF, Lewis ran in the 2014 Washington, DC, mayoral race, and was the first-ever special representative for global intergovernmental affairs under Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry from 2010 to 2013. In this role, she was charged with building strategic peer-to-peer relationships between the U.S. Department of State, U.S. state and local officials, and their foreign counterparts.

Lewis has also held senior positions in the public and private sectors, such as political appointments in the Clinton administration, a public policy law partner in an international law firm, and the director for business outreach for the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team. From 2001 to 2004, she was the vice president and counselor to the president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Lewis started her work with federal, state, and local governments as a principal staff member in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the special assistant to the president for political affairs in the Clinton White House from 1993 to 1995.