Amanda Fenton

Partner

Amanda Fenton has 15 years of advocacy experience straddling both Washington DC and the California legislature. She specializes in developing and executing long-term legislative strategies to create and shape funding streams to meet a client’s needs. Accomplishments include securing over $50 million in federal funding and over $40 million in state grant funding for clients, done through the methodological use of every stage of public funding process to pursue a competitive advantage for clients -- from authorizing legislation to appropriations language, all the way down to the issuance of RFPs and the content of grant proposals. During this time she also achieved meaningful state legislative change to help clients pursue their objectives and realize innovative public-private partnerships.

Amanda’s career includes the creation and execution of policy and funding advocacy campaigns for national associations and their regional members and affiliates, most recently as an in-house Director of Federal and State Policy. As the policy lead Amanda created the organization’s first federal policy platform, which included legislative, regulatory, and funding priorities. Using this platform, Amanda developed an advocacy strategy marked by success. This includes a regulatory effort that found success in the Biden, Trump and Obama Administrations, as well as a funding strategy that created a new funding stream to support association interests that is worth up to $16 million annually. She also managed development and oversaw execution of a multi-state policy campaign that secured policy reform in 25 state houses over the course of just four years.

These recent accomplishments demonstrate Amanda’s ability to quickly cultivate and mobilize diverse advocacy allies in shifting political environments. She works hard to uncover unconventional strategies that can yield big results.

Amanda grew up in Alameda, CA and lived in Oakland and Berkeley, CA. She currently lives in Hyattsville, MD, though she and her husband escape to California often to see family and friends. She has a BA in Public Policy from Stanford University.

Education

STANFORD UNIVERSITY
B.A. Public Policy

Expertise

  • Coordinated multi-state advocacy

  • K-12 Education

  • Charter Schools

  • Higher Education and Job Training

  • Cultural Institutions and Museums

  • California State and Local

Activities & Affiliations

  • Diverse Charter Schools Coalition, Board Member

  • Equity Coalition, Member

  • Secretary, Board of Directors, Maker Space Inc.