WSU Health Science Research and Cornerstone Government Affairs — Town Hall

About the event

The Office of External Affairs and Government Relations, through the Office of Federal Relations, is pleased to invite you to a town hall meeting with WSU’s federal consultants, Cornerstone Government Affairs (CGA). Offered in collaboration with WSU Health Sciences and the Office of Research, this event will provide an overview of federal health appropriation processes and a discussion of WSU’s concept paper procedures. Guidance will be provided on how to utilize the concept paper process to maximize impact along with examples shared of lessons learned and how it is used to build federal support for WSU.

Participants will come away with:

• • an understanding of federal funding processes, the organizational structure of federal health related agencies including the US Department of Health and Human Services, programmatic priority areas; and strategies to position WSU research for increased federal support;
  • knowledge of the CGA WSU concept paper process; what it is, how the information is used and why it is important; and
  • information about the federal political landscape, anticipated future legislative priorities, and what that may mean for WSU health sciences research leading into 2024.

This will be a completely virtual Zoom meeting. Don’t forget to use the link above to add this event to your calendar. We look forward to seeing you there!

About The Presenters:

MARK MIODUSKI – Principal and Director
Mark Mioduski brings three decades of Washington, D.C. appropriations, policy and legislative experience in the legislative and executive branches, as well as the private sector. Mark is one of the firm’s founding partners and co-leads the health practice at Cornerstone Government Affairs, where he assists non-profit public health associations, coalitions, healthcare providers and for-profit companies with federal appropriations, authorizing legislation, and general representation.

Mark served 11 years as a senior professional staff member of the Committee on Appropriations in the U.S. House of Representatives, primarily on the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, the last five years of which he was the Democratic clerk. Mark earned a B.A. in political science and an M.P.A. from the University of Arizona. He came to Washington in 1986 as a Presidential Management Fellow.

ERIK FATEMI – Principal
Erik Fatemi joined Cornerstone in 2013 after serving 12 years on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education under Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA). From February 2010 through October 2013 Erik served as the subcommittee’s staff director. During his time in the Senate he oversaw the entire breadth of funding and policy issues in the subcommittee’s jurisdiction, developing particular expertise in the areas of biomedical research and early childhood, secondary and higher education. He specialized in NIH issues for that entire period. As a principal at Cornerstone, Erik advises a range of clients with their advocacy goals, especially in the public health, medical research and education sectors. Erik holds a degree in English from Princeton University.

STACY RICH – Principal
With nearly 17 years of experience working in the Senate Democratic Leadership, Stacy Rich joined the Cornerstone team as a principal in January 2020 after serving as the leadership staff director for Sen. Patty Murray’s (D-WA) office. As a top aide to Murray, Stacy was responsible for advising the Senator on legislative strategy, leadership planning items, Senate procedure, member priorities and outreach, and floor activity, while also supporting the Senator’s work as Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee and as second most senior Democratic member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Having spent the majority of her Senate career on or near the Senate floor, Stacy has provided strategic counsel to Members, senior staff and committees on a wide array of legislative issues, including policies regularly considered in the course of a Senate session such as appropriations, defense authorizations, health and tax extenders and nominations.

Stacy earned her bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University and her master’s degree in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics in 2007.

LIZZIE MESSER – Senior Associate
Lizzie joined the Cornerstone team in September 2021 as a senior associate supporting the budget and appropriations team and OpsWatch grant monitoring service. She joins us from the U.S. House of Representatives, where she served as a legislative assistant in Rep. John Rutherford’s (R-FL) office. In this role, Lizzie was an associate staffer to the House Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS), Agriculture, Legislative Branch, and Housing. In addition, she mobilized funding increases for the Lung Cancer Research Program within the Defense Appropriations bill from $14 million to $20 million for Fiscal Year 2021, and drafted agency letters and bipartisan legislation, and advised the Member on legislative strategy for issues of jurisdiction.

Lizzie graduated from the University of North Florida with a bachelor’s degree in communications, concentration on public relations and a minor in history.

JONATHAN MILLER – Senior Associate
Jonathan Miller has more than a decade of experience in managing diverse medical research and development programs and appropriations in the defense health sector, and over 12 years of direct government experience leading all aspects of planning, programming, budgeting, and execution processes. He serves as a principal on the firm’s federal government relations team and primarily assists clients in the defense and defense health space.

Prior to joining Cornerstone, Jonathan served as chief of staff for the Defense Health Agency (DHA) Research and Development Directorate. In that capacity, he provided strategic direction and oversight of Defense Health Program (DHP) science and technology investments in the areas of combat casualty care, operational medicine, infectious diseases, medical simulation, health services, and clinical investigations. Jonathan was the research portfolio manager for the Sensory System Traumatic Injury for the USAMRDC’s Clinical and Rehabilitative Medicine Research Program. His scientific research focused on the behavioral and molecular mechanisms of drugs of abuse and has been published in several peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Jonathan received a B.S. in Nutrition from LaSalle University, M.S. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from Georgetown University, Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Temple University School of Medicine, and a J.D. from the University of Maryland, Francis King Carey School of Law.