Advocacy Team Meeting - 2018 - Sept. 10

Description

The Advocacy Team will host speakers Amanda Rockow, VP of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Dallas, and Isaac Faz, Chief Legislative Counsel at Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD), on higher education policy developments in the Texas legislature.

Amanda Rockow
Amanda Rockow serves as the Vice President for Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Dallas. In her role, Amanda leads the University's government and community relations activities. She operates as the chief contact for elected and community officials regarding legislative proposals, requests, and issues that may affect University operations.

Previously, Amanda served as the Vice President for Government Relations at the Dallas Regional Chamber. In this capacity, she advocated for regional business issues at the local, state, and federal levels and led the Chamber's policy development activities.

Amanda is the current chairman of the Richardson Chamber and is immediate past chairman of the Dallas Friday Group. She also serves on the board of the Plano Chamber. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a master's degree from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Isaac Faz
Isaac Faz, Chief Legislative Counsel and Governmental Affairs at Dallas County Community College District, is an attorney who has over 15 years of experience in government affairs, communications, political and civic campaigns working on local, state, federal and international issues. Isaac has worked extensively on developing relationships with local, state and federal officials to influence policy and legislative action. Issues range from trade, healthcare, education, affordable housing and job creation. 

A son of immigrants, Isaac began his career at Univision in Dallas which provided key experiences in developing media relations, working in a fast-paced setting with tight deadlines and engaging the Hispanic community. This experience led him to learn the importance of messaging, developing relationships and the opportunities and challenges in a diverse environment. 

Prior to joining DCCCD, Isaac served as a Presidential Appointee under President Barack Obama in The Executive Office of The President, in The Office of the United States Trade Representative. In this position, Isaac worked with various stakeholders and engaged local and state officials in order to promote the President?s trade agenda, including implementation of the National Export Initiative (NEI). In this capacity Isaac built coalitions with private-sector companies, trade associations, civic groups, chambers of commerce, and labor organizations on advancing and improving global trade and export policies and priorities.

Additionally, he interacted with The White House and other federal agencies on initiatives including the American Jobs Act and policy stemming from the President's State of the Union address. Isaac began his political career working for Ambassador Ron Kirk on his U.S. Senate bid in Texas and co-managed Representative Rafael Anchia?s campaign for Texas State Representative. 

Isaac enjoys traveling, he studied in Madrid, Spain and has visited 11 countries.