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James P. Smith
A founding partner of Smith Dawson & Andrews, Jim provides public affairs counsel to clients including the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones; Haarmann & Reimer Corp.; the City of Eugene, Oregon; Illinois Diversatech Corp., and a number of private companies dealing in international trade and U.S. Customs matters.
Before forming SDA in 1981, Jim served in several government and public affairs capacities, including Director of Intergovernmental Relations at the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), and a Special Assistant in the Office of the Governor, State of Illinois. At U.S. DOT, Jim developed a communications program to advance the Department's transportation policies, and was active in many key legislative battles on Capitol Hill.
Additionally, Jim served as a Congressional Relations Officer at the U.S. Department of Commerce and as a White House consultant for domestic and international travel. He advanced the State Visits to Warsaw, Poland; NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium; and the SALT II Summit in Vienna, Austria.
Jim received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Colorado State University.
E-mail Jim Smith: jims@sda-inc.com
Thomas C. Dawson
Tom founded Smith Dawson & Andrews with Jim Smith in 1981. He specializes in the areas of energy, transportation, environmental protection, and the congressional budget and appropriations processes. He oversees a number of the firm's clients including the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the City of San Francisco, and the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority.
A veteran in the Washington, D.C. public affairs arena, Tom served as a professional staff member on the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. In l977, he was a staff assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury, Michael Blumenthal. Tom later joined Secretary Brock Adams at the Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), where he served as the Secretary's primary liaison with state and local elected officials and the domestic automobile industry. While at U.S. DOT, Tom also served as press secretary and spokesman for Secretary Adams' international travels.
Tom is a graduate of Georgetown University.
E-mail Tom Dawson: tomd@sda-inc.com
Gregory B. Andrews
A partner in Smith Dawson & Andrews since 1984, Greg specializes
in transportation and health care issues. He works on
both legislative authorizing and appropriations matters
and provides counsel to clients including The George Washington
University; The State of Georgia; CAPA; Litton Advanced
Systems; Mother's Against Drunk Driving; the Wound, Ostomy
and Continence Nurses Society; Embassy of Japan; Estafeta
Mexicana, and San Francisco International Airport.
Greg also coordinated the November 1999 World Bank/George
Washington University/U.S. Department of Transportation
(U.S. DOT) Summit on Aviation Infrastructure. Following
the election of President Clinton, he was appointed to
the Clinton/Gore Presidential Transition Committee for
the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Prior to joining SDA, Greg was a vice president with Clarke
& Company, a national public relations firm based in Boston.
There, he provided public affairs and crisis management
counsel to the following accounts: McNeil Pharmaceutical,
W.R. Grace & Co, Massport, the New England Fuels Institute,
the Bank of New England, the Prudential Insurance Company,
IT Corporation, Price Waterhouse, Data General, and Coldwell
Banker Commercial Real Estate.
At the U.S. DOT, Greg took on a variety of assignments,
including Congressional Liaison Officer in the Office
of the Secretary, Special Assistant to the Federal Highway
Administrator, and membership on the Secretary's Urban
Highway Decision Group.
Greg is a graduate of Mankato State University in Minnesota.
E-mail Greg Andrews: grega@sda-inc.com
Ernest R. Warner
Ray works with the firm's principals in analyzing and
working with government agencies and Congress. He provides
clients with action-oriented Washington reporting and
representation. His expertise is in the business and governmental
aspects of aviation, aerospace, railroad, transit, and
automotive transportation in the United States and abroad.
After U.S. military service and management positions at
AT&T, Ray served as liaison with the Congress for the
Urban Mass Transportation Administration, now the Federal
Transit Administration, when the program was expanding
dramatically from a discretionary capital grant program
to a capital grant and operating subsidies program. He
was instrumental in the design and guided legislation
passed by Congress and signed by President Gerald Ford
to expand the program.
Ray became Director of Congressional Relations for the
U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) under secretary
William T. Coleman. He worked with Congress on the entire
U.S. DOT legislative program and advised the Secretary
of Transportation on new start transit programs.
After government service, Ray entered the private sector
to help American and European transportation companies
advance their commercial and political objectives with
U.S. agencies as well as international authorities.
He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in
Williamsburg, Virginia.
E-mail Ray Warner: rayw@sda-inc.com
Robert A. Gaines, Esq.
In 1992, Bob joined SDA as partner and General Counsel.
Prior to SDA, he spent more than five years as Vice
President Government Affairs for the American Insurance
Association (AIA), a Washington-based national trade
association representing stock property/casualty insurers.
President Clinton appointed him Commissioner on the
National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) in 1995
and he was re-appointed in 1997. He has been appointed
to several governmental boards and commissions including
the New York State Department of Taxation & Finance
Task Force on Insurance Industry Taxes; the [Iowa] Governor's
Task Force on Leaking Underground Storage Tanks and
the City of Chicago's Task Force on Infrastructure.
He has also served in the Carter White House as a member
of the ad hoc Presidential Task Force on Personnel.
Bob was Director of Communications for the Chicago Transit
Authority reporting to the Chairman and Assistant Press
Secretary to the Mayor of Chicago. Before being appointed
to the Mayor's staff, he was Vice President of Public
Relations for the advertising firm of A. Eicoff & Company,
a division of Ogilvy & Mather.
A member of the Illinois bar, Bob received his law degree
from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago. He is
a graduate of the University of Illinois and has completed
post-graduate study at Harvard University's John F.
Kennedy School of Government.
He serves as a principal client contact for the firm's
urban affairs—environment, land use planning and
transportation; business development and healthcare
information technology clients.
E-mail Bob Gaines: bobg@sda-inc.com
Susan M. Riley
Susan has worked extensively with community issues and organized educational programs in St. Paul/Minneapolis, as well as adult education programs on a statewide basis. She has also organized and participated in special forums for mayors on the reorientation of federal programs from defense to child and family care. Susan currently serves on the Board of the U.S. Mayors Enterprise and consults on specific child care operations.
Prior to joining SDA, Susan was staff director to Senator Edward M. Kennedy for 10 years, where she worked on a broad range of federal assistance programs. Her expertise is in housing and community development, especially joint public-private partnerships, financial services, and economic development. Susan is also a former senior-level employee of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development.
While in private practice, Susan has represented the country's largest developers, financiers, and owners and managers of multifamily rental housing. Another area of expertise includes health care delivery, financing, and Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. Susan has worked with major Wall Street firms on health facilities financing in cities nationwide. Her tax and trade expertise includes industrial development and tax-exempt bond financing and joint ventures with foreign and domestic corporations.
Susan holds a B.A. from Loyola University and an M.A. from Georgetown University, and has completed course work requirements for her Ph.D. at Georgetown University.
E-mail Susan Riley: susanr@sda-inc.com
William B. Newman, Jr., Esq.
Mr. Newman served as Conrail's Vice-President and Washington Counsel for 18 years before becoming a consultant. He assisted Conrail in going from a government-owned, money-losing corporation to a privately held, eminently successful company that was sold in 1998 for $10.3 billion.
During his tenure at Conrail, Mr. Newman worked on the issues of economic and safety regulation, tort reform, taxes, environment, and competitive equity both in the legislative and regulatory arenas. Mr. Newman was committee counsel with the House Energy and Commerce Committee working on the passage of the Staggers Rail Act before joining Conrail and is a member of the Virginia and DC bars. He is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University with both philosophy and journalism majors, an honors graduate of the George Mason University School of Law and has completed the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program
Mr. Newman was also on the Board of Directors of the National
Council For Adoption and was chairman of its Public Policy
Committee. In his work as at SDA, he has worked on telecommunications,
energy, environmental, and transportation matters.
E-mail William Newman: billn@sda-inc.com
Kirk A. Bailey, Esq.
Kirk Bailey is the newest member of the Smith Dawson & Andrews team. He is an attorney with expertise in education, constitutional and public law and a background in public affairs, lobbying and community outreach. He currently serves as Special Counsel at the Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence, where he advises the Institute on legal issues involving school safety, youth violence, student constitutional rights, and federal administrative issues. In addition, Mr. Bailey assists the Institute's public outreach and fundraising efforts and serves as an interagency liaison with Congress and several federal agencies, including the Departments of Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services.
Most recently, Mr. Bailey served as Director of the Office of Legislative and Community Relations at the University of Oregon. During his tenure at the University of Oregon, he helped engineer a $100 million reinvestment in Oregon's higher education system, lobbied successfully for increased funding for juvenile justice and youth violence prevention programs, and garnered legislative support for new research initiatives in bioinformatics and information technology. Mr. Bailey has a long history in the legislative arena having served in professional staff positions with the state legislatures of Oregon, Hawaii, and Alaska; and with the staff of U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski (AK).
Prior to his work at the University of Oregon, Mr. Bailey held a variety of positions in the private sector. He clerked at the law firm of Gleaves Swearingen Larson Potter Scott and Smith during law school and formed a startup computer service company; SynapTECH, Inc. Mr. Bailey maintains active membership in the Oregon Bar Association and the American Bar Association.
E-mail Kirk Bailey: kirkb@sda-inc.com
Ramon Luis Lugo
For the past 14 years, numerous multinational corporations
as well as foreign, domestic and local governments in
Washington, Puerto Rico, South America and Europe have
relied on Ramon for public affairs counseling at SDA.
Ramon has directed SDAšs office and operations in San
Juan, Puerto Rico since1992.
In
1977 Ramon served as a Staff Assistant at the White
House Office of Presidential Personnel. From 1978 to
1980, Ramon was a consultant to the White House and
the State Department for the domestic and international
travel of President Carter and Vice President Mondale.
Ramon coordinated the President's visit to Panama on
the occasion of a multilateral conference and the signing
of the Panama Canal Treaty. He coordinated official
international travel for the Vice President including
State visits to Nigeria, Panama and The Philippines.
Prior
to joining the Administration, Ramon served as a senior
staff assistant in the 1976 Democratic Presidential
Campaign and in the 1977 Presidential Inaugural Committee.
Since then, Ramon has remained active in the Democratic
Party as a consultant to the 1980, 1984 and the 1992
Democratic Presidential campaigns.
Ramon
attended Columbia University in the City of New York.
E-mail Ramon: ramonl@sda-inc.com
Amy
R. Williams
Ms. Williams has recently joined Smith Dawson &
Andrews as the Business Office Manager. Having previously
worked as Payroll Administrator/Accountant at The Trane
Company, she brings with her a wealth of experience
in the following areas: management, accounting, payroll
and human resource functions as well as having a broad
administrative background.
Amy is a graduate of Kent State University in Ohio.
E-mail Amy Williams: amy@sda-inc.com
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