Government Relations Team

The Government Relations team represents CRS and its policy positions to the U.S. Congress, White House, Department of State, and other U.S. Government entities to advance public policy that supports humanitarian and development work overseas.

The Government Relations team also leads Mission and Mobilization’s efforts to cultivate grasstop Catholic leaders around the country to advocate CRS priorities with their elected officials.

Emily Wei

Director of Policy

 

 

CRS Staff Emily Wei

Emily brings strategic direction and leadership to the policy team’s work, while helping to set agency policy priorities, drawing from the depth and breadth of the agency’s work in communities around the world. Emily has more than 15 years’ experience, working in Geneva, South Africa, Ghana and Malawi. Before coming to CRS, she was an International Fellow with the Congressional Hunger Center in Malawi with CARE and spent her policy year with Mercy Corps in Washington D.C. She holds a B.A. in anthropology from Harvard University, an M.A. in public policy from Duke University, and a law degree from Fordham University.

David Cronin

Senior Policy and Legislative Specialist

 

 

CRS staff Dave Cronin

 

Dave is a senior policy and legislative specialist based in Washington, D.C. He works with Congress and the administration to advance CRS’ public policy and advocacy efforts related to foreign assistance appropriations, Latin America and the Caribbean, and vulnerable people on the move. Prior to CRS, David worked in campus ministry at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and served as a Jesuit volunteer at Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention, rehab and re-entry program in the world. He holds an M.A. in development economics and human security from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a B.A. in theology and history from Boston College.

Cheryl Mrazik

Advocacy Advisor

As the advocacy advisor, Cheryl develops and mobilizes CRS’ network of influential advocates who engage members of Congress and the administration on policies and legislation relevant to the mission of CRS. From 2011-2017, she served as a relationship manager in the CRS Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Regional Office, supporting Catholic individuals and institutions to live their faith in solidarity with those in need around the world. She holds B.A. degrees in English and philosophy from the University of Scranton and a M.A. in international development from the University of Pittsburgh.

Marilyn Shapley

Senior Policy and Legislation Specialist

Marilyn is a senior policy and legislative specialist with Catholic Relief Services. She is part of a small team based in Washington, D.C. that focuses on crafting policy and advocacy recommendations, and supports a portfolio that includes food security and climate change as well as regional issues in East Africa. Marilyn has 15 years of work experience, including positions at Mercy Corps, InterAction, the Alliance for Peacebuilding, and in the office of U.S. Representative Dennis Cardoza. She holds an M.A. in international relations and international economics from the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. in international studies from the University of California San Diego.

Craig Swandby

Senior Policy and Legislative Specialist

Craig is a senior policy and legislative specialist with Catholic Relief Services and has worked at the intersection of humanitarian programs and Washington, D.C., for the last 9 years. Craig partners with offices around the world to identify barriers to programmatic success, develop policy and legislative solutions, and lead advocacy strategies to influence the US government and achieve greater humanitarian impacts. Craig supports CRS’ programs in the Middle East and focuses on humanitarian and conflict settings, compliance, and peacebuilding. Prior to joining CRS Craig worked for World Vision, where he supplemented D.C.-based advocacy efforts with assignments and consultations in the West Bank and Gaza, Iraq, South Sudan, and their Syria Response in Jordan. Craig holds a B.A. in anthropology from Wheaton College.

Madison Sasman

Policy & Advocacy Coordinator

Madison provides administrative, logistical, operational, and programmatic support to advance the department’s advocacy strategy. Prior to CRS, she worked at the International Institute of New England, where she connected refugees with resettlement services and community resources. Her past experiences include supporting participatory community development research in the Dominican Republic. Madison holds a B.A. in Public Policy from William and Mary, with a minor in Hispanic Studies.

Candice Harris

Advocacy Advisor

As an advocacy advisor, Candice develops and mobilizes Catholic Relief Services’ network of influential advocates to engage members of Congress and the administration on policies and legislation relevant to the mission of CRS. She has been involved in advocacy work for more than fifteen years. She also has experience supporting and stewarding donors as a Development Officer in the Individual Giving program for three years. Her background is in social work and social policy, which began when she was a Jesuit volunteer. She is a proud graduate of Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work & Social Research and Saint Joseph’s University.

Policy Team

The policy team, based in Baltimore, Maryland and Washington D.C., focuses on developing CRS’ policy positions through research, analysis and writing, on issues including advancing local leadership, forced displacement, climate change, food security and nutrition, markets and cash, conflict and fragility and peace in the Sahel.

Gina Castillo

Senior Research and Policy Advisor

Dr. Gina Castillo is the Climate Policy and Research Advisor with responsibility for identifying, analyzing, and translating evidence from CRS’s programs to advance equitable climate policies that empower and enhance the resilience of vulnerable and marginalized groups. Gina joined CRS in 2022 bringing more than 18 years’ experience in the non-profit sector working at the nexus of program strategy, research, and policy. Before coming to CRS, she was with Oxfam America where among other things she initiated the agency’s work on climate change programming, provided strategic oversight to the agency’s agriculture portfolio and co-led Oxfam International’s resilience knowledge hub. She holds a Ph.D. in anthropology.

Meghan Armistead

Senior Research and Policy Advisor

Meghan is the senior research and policy advisor, focused on identifying, analyzing, and translating evidence from the field for improved humanitarian and development policy. Her current portfolio focusses on local leadership, localization, civil society and aid reform. Over the past 20 years, Meghan has worked with community, faith-based, and national organizations in the U.S. and overseas to forge and strengthen partnerships, to assess and strengthen organizational capacities, and to identify and scale civil society innovation and leadership. She has been an NGO development volunteer with the Peace Corps in Haiti and worked for Lutheran World Relief. She has a B.A. in history from Tufts University and an M.A. in international development and economics from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies.

Sara Higgins

Research and Policy Advisor II

Sara supports the policy team through identifying and building out research opportunities and grounding policy recommendations in evidence and country program experiences. Her portfolio includes food security, nutrition, and market-based approaches. Sara has over 10 years of experience working in the field of public health, including two years as a Leland Hunger Fellow with CRS, leading healthcare transformation efforts for the Veterans Health Administration, and working in community health with indigenous populations in Guatemala with the U.S. Peace Corps. Sara holds an MPH in International Health and Development from Tulane University and a B.S. in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.