You’ve been at Comcast for more than eight years. That’s remarkable during this period, when it is a seller’s market for public affairs talent. And you’re being promoted again, to vice president. Can you talk about that?

Actually, it’s been more than eight years, since I had an internship at Comcast way back in 2008-09. And I’ve been incredibly fortunate. I’ve been able to grow and continue to learn as part of the political affairs team here during a time in which our company’s interactions with government have increased, and because of that our role has grown, too. It’s been an exciting time to be here.

What are the advantages of staying with the same organization, as you have?

The institutional knowledge I have been able to develop has been the biggest benefit by far. The way our political affairs work is organized is different than that of a lot of organizations. I work on the compliance side. A different team is responsible for how the contributions are distributed to candidates. The other team handles the actual advocacy, the lobbying. We are sort of the back shop for their outward-facing activities. We handle all the compliance issues that come with all of their political activity and government interactions. Because I have been at Comcast for all these years, I’ve come to understand how all these various disciplines work together — how they’re intertwined.

And that kind of understanding takes time, doesn’t it?

Exactly. And that is what I tell new hires when they come on board. I tell them they won’t grasp the whole picture right away. I tell them they will come by it in time, so they need to give it a couple of years before they really begin to understand how it all fits together. And that is what I really love about my work. I’m constantly learning, and the more knowledge I have — that institutional knowledge — the more valuable I can be.

Your minor in college was math. Isn’t that unusual in the public affairs field?

I think it is. But I have found it to be a real advantage in my work. I have always loved math, but I chose it as a minor to balance my studies of the humanities. I did it on purpose, with that idea of balance in mind. My major was political science. When you deal in compliance issues, as I do, math provides you an intellectual discipline — a method of critical thinking — that is a real benefit. That is especially true as data analysis becomes more and more important. It is also pretty important when your work requires you to compile internal financial reports!

You’re involved in Comcast’s PAC. How did COVID-19 affect fundraising?

We were fortunate. Because our peak fundraising time is in the fall, and there was enough of a dip in COVID cases in the fall of 2020 and 2021, we never needed to pause our solicitations. But one advantage we have in terms of dealing with the pandemic is that we never have done a lot of in-person appeals. That’s because we have eligible employees and offices all over the country. We’re very spread out geographically. So pausing our person-to-person solicitation was never a big issue for us. One thing we do that more centralized organizations tend not to do is have more midlevel people — regional managers, you might say — help with the solicitations. Their voices are important. We don’t just rely on senior leadership. And we find that to be effective.

Back to your experience, you did an internship with the Philadelphia Water Department?

I did, and that was intentional, too. I wanted some experience with government, even in what might seem like a pretty unglamorous municipal office. But it was great to see how government operates at a micro level. I also did an internship, through Drexel University, with an academic institution, as an editorial assistant with a scholarly journal, The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History. With the internship at Comcast, I got a taste of academia, government and the private sector. This was my plan, and so far, it seems to have worked out pretty well!

You recently spoke at the Council’s National PAC Conference. The majority of attendees are women and nearly 70% of this year’s speakers were women. There’s been a lot of celebration of Women’s History Month. How does the community at the PAC Conference inspire you?

This community is always willing to help each other through challenges and to share best practices and resources. I have been on both sides of this, asking the community for advice and sharing resources with others. It’s very special, and it’s one of the things that makes these conferences so valuable.

Reach Eggert-Crowe at [email protected].