Title: Director of the Federal Liaison Center
Firm: Government Finance Officers Association
Age: 38
Emily Brock led the expansion of the Public Finance Network to 45 organizations and rallied the group to present a unified message to Washington lawmakers during last year’s tax reform debate.
Emily also played a lead role in GFOA’s research on how elimination of the federal deduction for state and local taxes would impact individual congressional districts. That information was used for lobbying lawmakers. Congress ended up setting a $10,000 cap after the House considered completely eliminating what had previously been an unlimited deduction. She also helped coordinate lobbying on the possible elimination of the tax exemption of private activity bonds, which was avoided in the final tax bill, and advance refundings, which were terminated.
This year Emily has played a leadership role in the uphill effort to reinstate advance refundings through legislation.
Emily started at GFOA in 2013 as senior policy advisor, taking over as director a year later.
“In the hyper-partisan environment in D.C., Emily Brock stands out as the exception,” said Chris Morrill, executive director and CEO of the GFOA. “While she is passionate about serving the needs of communities, she is not partisan. She uses data and strong relationships to help legislators and regulators understand the real impacts of their actions.”
She earned her doctorate in public finance at Virginia Tech where she also received her bachelor’s degree in political science. In between she earned an MBA at the College of William and Mary.
Earlier in her career Emily worked as a government and commercial relationship manager for Wachovia Bank in Roanoke, Virginia and as a staff member for a Virginia state senator.
A resident of Alexandria, Virginia, she often bikes to work in downtown D.C.
