As the Commission’s government relations director, Alicia develops and implements strategies for stakeholder, community, and legislative relations. She also coordinates legislative strategies and priorities to advance the legislative agenda. This includes engaging and influencing legislators, decision-makers, and other stakeholders.
Alicia brings extensive project management experience, public policy knowledge, an understanding of related state and federal laws, and familiarity with deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing issues.
Through her previous role as president and chief creative officer at AllOut Marketing, Alicia closely worked 15+ years on contracted projects with the Commission and other State of Minnesota agencies. Her overall 23+ years of experience also includes advising executives on communications and legislative strategy at nonprofits with state and federal grants, schools, universities, and businesses.
As a longtime accessibility advocate, Alicia testified before the Minnesota legislature urging the passage of the 2009 law to make the state’s technology accessible to users with disabilities. After its successful passage, she subsequently served on the state's Technology Accessibility IT Developers Workgroup for implementing this new law.
In her six years of service on the board of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), Alicia oversaw a national organization focused on legislative and large systems advocacy on the federal level and civic engagement on the state level, with a multimillion-dollar budget. She also provided guidance on government policy development on both federal and state levels.
Alicia is a past president and board member of the Minnesota Association of Deaf Citizens (MADC). Much was accomplished during her term, including partnering with the Commission and other community partners to persuade the judiciary to use on-site interpreters instead of inadequate video remote interpreting services, revitalizing the organization's communications, and increasing representation of MADC at state and national levels.
