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MARCH OF FOLEY. The offices of Foley Hoag are expanding their government strategies practice and have hired Connie Garner and Stacey Sachs to navigate the uncharted waters of healthcare reform. Garner has been named policy director of the government strategies practice, and Sachs joins the firm as senior health policy specialist. Both come from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, where they served under the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and current HELP Chairman Tom Harkin. In her role as the panel's policy director, Garner was a principal staff architect of the Community Living Assistance Services and Support Act -- enacted as part of healthcare reform this year. Garner received a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a master's in nursing from George Mason University, and an educational specialist degree in health and education policy from The George Washington University. Sachs was health counsel for the HELP Committee, where she had worked since 1998. Before coming to Capitol Hill, she worked for the chief administrative law judge at the Social Security Administration and as a counsel at the Labor Department. Sachs received her bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Florida.

VERTICALLY IN-KLINED. Various changes are afoot in the office of Rep. John Kline, R-Minn. Ryan Silverberg, a former officer in the Marine Corps, has been named military legislative assistant. Former interns Pat Pelletier and Robert Punch have been promoted to legislative correspondent and staff assistant, respectively.

HOSPITAL BOUND. Kimberly C. Parker, former chief of staff to Reps. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., and Laura Richardson, D-Calif., is the new vice president of federal relations at the Illinois Hospital Association, which is establishing an office in Washington. In the position, Parker will engage lawmakers and the executive branch on behalf of the IHA, which represents 200 Illinois hospitals. Prior to working on the Hill, Parker was deputy assistant secretary for legislation at HHS. She has also worked at the American Postal Workers Union, the American Federation of Government Employees and the United Way. Parker is a graduate of Howard University.

LAST TRAIN FROM SHELBYVILLE. Abby McCloskey, most recently a legislative correspondent for Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., is joining the Financial Services Roundtable as director of research. McCloskey graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois and was a policy analyst with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and the Charles G. Koch Foundation before working on the Hill.

This article appears in the July 24, 2010, edition of National Journal Daily.

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