Who We Are
The Washington Policy Institute encourages, equips and empowers journalists to discover, describe and document issues and events affecting freedom, faith and family, enabling individuals to make informed decisions about their community, nation and world.
Because of the lean model of the Washington Policy Institute, your donations are used most effectively and efficiently. We operate with minimal staffing and overhead.
Board of Directors
Jennifer Nohelty
CEO
Jennifer Nohety
Jennifer Nohety has been working in planned giving for over 25 years, following in her father’s footsteps as a gift planner and wanting to serve her donors, she worked with innumerable donors. She has been able to help donors transfer their values and faith to their heirs – because that is all they had, to working with donors transferring billions of dollars. Jennifer’s experience with all donors has shown the importance of values and caring for the legacy we all leave.
She holds many certifications and designations, but believes that first and foremost, her job is to hold donors’ hands and show them what their legacy opportunities may be, and how they impact their heirs and charities. She works with the donors’ professional advisors to help them implement the plan.
Jennifer has been married to her best friend for 33 years and they have been blessed with 3 children – a daughter (who is married to her “favorite” son-in-law) and 2 sons, and 2 pretty incredible grand-daughters.
Jeff Birnbaum
Director
Jeff Birnbaum
Jeff Birnbaum, a principal at BGR, heads its public relations offering. He leads a team in Washington that gives strategic advice to coalitions, companies and governments about handling the media and issue campaigns. An award-winning journalist, Jeff has worked for the premier news outlets in the United States.
Jeff, who joined BGR in 2010, has advised trade associations, multinational corporations, coalitions, international organizations and foreign governments. He has helped conduct proxy battles, run issue campaigns, design digital communications, manage coalitions, introduce new trade association CEOs and protect clients’ reputations during crises. On behalf of a wide range of clients, he has worked with international, national and regional media.
His experience prior to joining BGR includes serving as a White House, congressional and tax reporter for the Wall Street Journal, a senior political correspondent for Time Magazine, Washington bureau chief for Fortune Magazine and a columnist for the Washington Post. He is also the author of five books about Washington including the award-winning “Showdown at Gucci Gulch,” which he wrote with Alan S. Murray, and “Fifty Years of Business Roundtable: The Voice of America’s Leading CEOs in Washington,” for which he led a writing team. In 1994, he won the Aldo Beckman Memorial Award for his coverage of the White House.
Jeff was a longtime contributor to Fox News Channel and a columnist for the Washington Times, where he served as Managing Editor – Digital in charge of multimedia and online news. In that role, Jeff helped oversee a newsroom staff of more than 170 and was involved in editing and orchestrating major-story coverage. He also founded a subscriber-based news service directed at industry leaders who wanted premium information about Washington policy and politics. In addition, Jeff oversaw the TV and radio operations.
Jeff was a columnist for the Washington Post for more than four years, covering the intersection of business and government. Prior to working at the Post, he spent seven years as the chief of Fortune magazine’s Washington bureau and two years as a senior political correspondent for Fortune’s sister publication, Time. Before joining Time in 1995, Jeff worked for the Wall Street Journal for 16 years.
Jeff’s first book, “Showdown at Gucci Gulch,” was published in 1987 and won the American Political Science Association’s coveted Carey McWilliams Award in 1988. In 1992, Jeff’s second book, “The Lobbyists,” was a Washington Post bestseller. “Madhouse,” Jeff’s third book, about President Clinton’s White House, was published in 1996. His fourth book, “The Money Men,” examines campaign fundraising and was published in 2000. For his fifth book, Jeff was hired by Business Roundtable in 2022 to write the prestigious organization’s definitive history.
As a political analyst for Fox News Channel for 18 years, Jeff was featured on Fox News’ Special Report as one of the show’s “Fox All Stars” and on several other Fox News programs as well as the Fox Business Network. He also appeared on Fox News Radio as its political analyst. He served as chairman of the Bryce Harlow Foundation, Washington’s leading organization of government affairs professionals, and was a longtime member of the board of the National Press Foundation.
Dr. Scott Hayes
Director
Dr. Scott Hayes
Dr. Scott Hayes serves as the dean for the School of Communication and the Arts (SCA) at Liberty University. Under his leadership, SCA has developed new degree programs, including Ph.D, MFA, and BFA degrees, permanent artwork acquisition, funded faculty/student collaborative research and global learning experiences, as well as multiple facility improvements, including the planning and construction of an art museum, black box theater, digital production studios/sound stages, and various studios for dance, acting, and art.
Scott serves as the executive producer or publisher for all theatre, film, digital media, journalism, and streaming productions within SCA, In his professional career, Scott is a member of the Actors Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. He has edited two books on the Victorian composer Arthur Sullivan. As a playwright and adaptor, his works include the theatrical adaptation of the Francine Rivers novel, “Redeeming Love.” Scott and his wife Sarah have three daughters and one grandson.
David Keene
Director
David Keene
David A. Keene is Editor-at-Large and former Opinion Editor at The Washington Times, the nation’s largest conservative newspaper, and his articles can be found here. He is writing an anecdote book on the modern conservative movement in America and published Shall Not Be Infringed: The New Assaults on Your Second Amendment in 2016.
As President of the National Rifle Association (NRA) for the two traditional one-year terms, Keene led the “All-In” Campaign to elect Second Amendment supporters to federal and state office in 2012 and worked tirelessly to keep the U.S. from adopting Obama gun control legislation in 2013. NRA membership grew from four to five plus million members. He remains on the NRA board, the executive committee, and chairs the Publications Policy Committee. He was a Special Arms Representative to the United Nations in the President George W. Bush Administration.
From 1982 to 2011, Keene served as the elected Chairman of the American Conservative Union (ACU), the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots conservative advocacy group. ACU organizes the annual Conservative Political Action Conference or CPAC, which Keene grew from 200 to 11,000 conservative activists in his volunteer capacity. CPAC meets in Washington, DC, each winter to hear and to network with conservative leaders from around the country and the world.
Keene serves on the boards of The Center for the National Interest, The Montana Policy Institute, Republic Books and The Washington Policy Institute. He has served as delegate to Norway for the American Council of Young Political Leaders, on the board of The Constitution Project, the Board of Visitors at Duke University’s Public Policy School, the Eisenhower Memorial Committee, a John F. Kennedy Fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Policy, a First Amendment Fellow at Vanderbilt University’s Freedom Forum, and others. He has lobbied at the state, federal and international levels, including for Algeria and Western Sahara, Hyundai, and major hospital and transportation centers.
He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Wisconsin while serving as National Chairman of Young Americans for Freedom. In Washington, DC, he became a Special Assistant to Vice President Spiro Agnew during the Nixon Administration, then Executive Assistant to New York Senator Jim Buckley. He advised presidential campaigns including George H.W. Bush (as National Political Director), Bob Dole, Ronald Reagan (Regional Political Director), Mitt Romney and dozens of state and local campaigns.
For 14 years, Keene wrote a regular column for The Hill, which focused on Capitol Hill. He has written extensively on civil liberties, criminal justice and politics for the American Spectator, Boston Globe, Human Events, National Review, and others including to numerous books and hundreds of radio and television programs, for example as election consultant to CBS News. His Lifetime Achievement Awards include the CPAC, Council of Racial Equality, Second Amendment Foundation, and the Young America’s Foundation.
Keene is married to Donna Wiesner Keene, and they enjoy the company of five children, ten grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. They work in Washington, DC, and protect their sanity by fishing, hunting and enjoying the outdoors, most frequently in Montana.
Dante Swallow
Director
Dante Swallow
Dante Swallow currently serves as the Director of Partnerships for Cumulus Media – the nation’s third largest radio ownership group and 7th largest podcast publishing network. In this role, Dante develops and manages strategic partnerships with media outlets, marketing agencies, advocacy organizations and government entities to elevate the brand and visibility of Cumulus radio stations and digital properties. Prior to joining Cumulus, Dante worked with the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, where he engaged and managed donor relations, fundraising events, and the organization individual giving program.
Originally from Montana, Dante currently lives and has worked in Washington, DC for the past decade. Dante is an outdoor enthusiast who enjoys weekends in the Shenandoah Mountains with his wife and dog. Fun fact: Dante survived a mountain lion attack when he was six years old.
Gerard Willis
Director
Gerard Willis
Gerard F. Willis is the Chairman of Operations Holdings, Inc. (dba/ HJ Magnolia USA Holdings), a multi-industry holding company for a variety of businesses including The Washington Times, the New Yorker Hotel, Manhattan Center, and Ocean Peace). He was formerly President & CEO.
Before returning to the United States in 2022 from a 30-year career in Asia, he worked as a business leader, an attorney for a Wall Street law firm, a senior legal counsel for four fortune 100 corporations, and as managing director for a private equity firm, leading transactions during his time in Asia with an aggregate value of over 18 billion dollars.
Most recently he served as the first foreign Chairman in the 50-year history of the Tongil Group, a multi-industry family-owned Korean “Chaebol” (family founded conglomerate) with revenues equivalent to a U.S. Fortune 500 company. Prior to that he was the Vice President & General Counsel, Asia Pacific, for Honeywell International, a diversified technology corporation operating through four divisions: Aerospace, Automation & Control Systems, Specialty Chemicals and Transportation Systems, with approximately 35,000 employees and U.S. $ 7 Billion of yearly revenues in the Asia Pacific region, representing 3X growth in Asia and 10x growth in China during his 18 years as its general counsel. He was a member of Board of Directors and Vice Chairman of the Audit Committee of Honeywell Automation India Ltd., Honeywell’s only publicly listed subsidiary. He was chosen as one of “China’s Top 15 General Counsel for 2015” by Asian Legal Business, a Thomas Reuters publication, and named in Legal 500 as one of the “Most Influential Lawyers in China and Hong Kong, 2017”. The Financial Times of London in a pullout distributed to 2 million readers recognized his legal department of 80 plus attorneys as one of only 4 of Asia’s “Outstanding Legal Departments”, their highest category. Others in that category included Alibaba and Tencent. He served as an Arbitrator (one of only 3 U.S. citizens) for the Shanghai International Arbitration Commission.
His work in Asia also included the role of chief counsel in Asia for El Paso Energy International, Enron Asia Pacific, and ARCO China, Inc.
He was a senior associate based in Los Angeles and Hong Kong for Milbank, Tween, Hadley & McCloy, a major Wall Street law firm where he specialized in M&A, capital markets and bank financing. He led several Asia “firsts”, including the first Asia company leveraged buy-out.
As Managing Director of Panda Group, Ltd., a private company with over $200 MM invested in projects in Asia, he collaborated with company advisor the late Secretary of State General Alexander Haig in securing government approvals and successfully restructuring its largest project.
For eight years during the height of the Cold War he was the Managing Director of the Washington, DC based Freedom Leadership Foundation (est 1969), a foreign policy foundation focussed on the East-West struggle, where he oganized conferences and symposia; lectured, published and edited a bi-weekly international affairs newspaper; produced two award-winning television documentaries which aired on local and cable networks and received the Medal of Honor from Valley Forge Freedom Foundation (contemporary recipients, Hon Warren Berger, Hon. Jean Kirkpatrick) and the annual award from the Council for Defense of Freedom(contemporary recipient New York Times journalist Fox Butterfield).
He earned a JD from New York University School of Law; , a BA from Brown University; and an MA from the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs.
He has black belts in Shimgumdo (Korean sword) and Kendo (2nd Dan Japanese sword), and is a practitioner of Tai Qi Jian (Chinese sword) and Western Fencing (Sabre).
Our Mission
Empowering Journalists,
Inspiring Students
We train and equip journalists to cover issues important to you – that no one else covers. We also bring the news and newsmakers to your hometown and to students and schools around the nation.
While we are active in many areas, we focus on the following key goals:
News to You
We bring newsmakers and the journalists who cover them to you so you can hear cutting edge issues in a timely manner. We give you the opportunity to hear directly from the source what is happening in Washington, around the country and world and how it may impact you. We strive to give you the ability to ask questions and interact with the newsmakers. As we serve you, let us know who you want to hear from and what issues are most important to you.
Patriotism in High Schools
The Washington Policy Institute helps aspiring writers and journalists consider and express the importance of the exceptional country that America is, while learning to read, report and recognize news fairly and without bias. As part of our effort, we host essay contests that encourage high school-age students (including home school students) the opportunity to work with their teachers to create essays and other media addressing current and relevant topics.
This fall the Washington Policy Institute inaugurates its essay contest mission by celebrating America’s 250th birthday. Students will have the opportunity to write about the nation and what America and its birthday means to them. The Washington Policy Institute will offer winning writers a trip to Washington with their parents and their teachers and have their works published in national media. See our Students page for more information.
Ralph Hallow Scholarship
Honoring the late Washington iconic editor, Ralph Hallow, the Washington Policy Institute is accepting donations to fund this important scholarship. It will provide internship opportunities for college journalism students to work in a real newsroom for ten weeks. As an antidote to Advocacy Journalism so prevalent in today’s media, The Ralph Hallow Scholarship provides students with a cash award scholarship as well as a paid internship in a news organization providing unbiased, national news coverage. Interns will not fetch coffee. They will find themselves covering real news in real situations under the guidance of experienced editors. We currently offer an internship with The Washington Times, and we are forming relationships with more news organizations to offer qualifying student interns the opportunity to work with (as much as possible) the medium he or she chooses (print, video, radio or other electronic media). Join us in helping more deserving students receive the training and experience they, and America, needs.
Donate
Join us by donating to The Washington Policy Institute so we can offer more essay contests to more students with more opportunities as well as giving us the ability to host more and greater events, and finally to offer the Hallow Scholarship to more deserving students.
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