Meet DMA's Government Affairs Team

As your company focuses on its core business functions, DMA’s Government Affairs team is constantly focused on the wide range of policy and political issues that affect the direct marketing community.  There are many ways for you to connect directly with the team: 

 

Read on to learn about and connect directly with each member of the team, or send an email to government@the-dma.org to learn more about our publications, conference calls and coalitions.

 

Linda A.  Woolley
Executive Vice President, Government Affairs

Linda A. Woolley is executive vice president of government affairs for the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), the leading global trade association of businesses and nonprofit organizations using and supporting multichannel direct marketing tools and techniques. DMA today represents nearly 3,100 companies from vertical industries in the US and 48 other nations, including a majority of the Fortune 100 companies.

In this role, Woolley is responsible for strategically managing DMA’s advocacy, legislative, and political efforts, supporting its overall business and marketing objectives, and building upon DMA’s significant position in the greater marketing community and the business world at large. She also works to establish strong working relationships with DMA members and influential external constituencies, including the Administration and federal, state, and local government officials.

Prior to joining DMA in August 2008, Woolley was the principal of LegisLaw, a full-service public affairs and government relations consulting firm that she founded in 1999. The firm specialized in lobbying, particularly in the tax and trade areas, and in providing PAC-related services. Clients included Fortune 500 companies and trade associations from a wide range of industries, including transportation, manufacturing, chemicals, healthcare, energy, building materials, banking, and defense.

Woolley, who is an attorney, has extensive government relations experience, having worked for Congress, a trade association, and two Fortune 200 corporations. She began her career working on environmental legislation, and over the years has worked on a wide range of legislative and regulatory issues, including tax, trade, pension, health, energy, defense, and communications.  From 1995 to 1999, Woolley was director of public affairs for ITT Industries (a spin-off company of ITT Corporation) where she managed the company’s Washington office, lobbying on issues of critical importance. Prior to that, she was director of public affairs for ITT Corporation from 1983 to 1995, where she was a lobbyist and chairman of the corporation’s PAC. She participated as an auditor in ITT Corporation’s environmental auditing program and worked extensively with the United Nations Environmental Programme. Woolley has also held senior positions with the US Chamber of Commerce and the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health & Environment.

Woolley holds a B.A. in Government from Hamilton College and a Juris Doctorate from American University in Washington, DC.

 

Jerry Cerasale
Senior Vice President, Government Affairs

Jerry Cerasale is senior vice president of government affairs for the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). In this role, Cerasale represents the multichannel marketing community’s policymaking interests on Capitol Hill and before key federal agencies, including the US Postal Service (USPS) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Cerasale began his legal and government relations career in the USPS’s legal department. He served for 12 years at the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) in a number of advisory roles, including seven years as legal advisor to PRC Chairman Janet Steiger. He then became attorney/advisor to FTC Chairman Janet Steiger. Immediately before joining DMA in 1995, Cerasale was deputy general counsel for the US House of Representatives Committee on Post Office and Civil Service.

Currently, Cerasale is secretary/treasurer of The Mailers Council’s Board of Directors. He has also been a member of FTC’s Advisory Committee on Online Access, and vice chairman of the Postal Matters Subsection of the Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Section of the American Bar Association.

Cerasale holds a juris doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law, and a bachelor’s degree in government and economics from Wesleyan University. He served in the US Army from 1970 to 1972.

 

Ron Barnes
Vice President, State Affairs

Ron Barnes is vice president of state affairs for the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), where he represents the Association in issues of state advocacy. Barnes joined DMA in April 2007, as part of DMA’s ongoing efforts to expand the breadth of its advocacy capabilities.

Barnes came to DMA from CTIA–The Wireless Association, where he managed the organization’s state regulatory advocacy. Earlier at CTIA, he led the implementation of Section 225 (the disability access provision of the Telecommunication Act of 1996) and worked on CTIA’s industry and consumer education efforts on wireless phone and base station health effects.  Prior to joining CTIA, Barnes was a legislative affairs specialist with Holland & Knight LLP, where he focused on legislative and regulatory activities in the telecommunications, environment, and health care sectors. Previously, he served on the staff of US Senator Lauch Faircloth (R-NC).

Barnes holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Carolina.

 

Rachel Nyswander Thomas
Vice President, Government Affairs

Rachel Nyswander Thomas is vice president of government affairs for the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). In this role, Thomas represents the multichannel marketing community’s policymaking interests on Capitol Hill and before key federal agencies.

Thomas came to DMA from The McGraw-Hill Companies, where she served most recently as manager for privacy and government affairs. In that role, she advocated the corporation’s agenda before federal policymakers on issues relating to privacy, data security, behavioral advertising, environmental and “do not promote” legislation. She also held chief responsibility for business compliance with the corporation’s customer privacy policy, auditing worldwide operations and providing regulatory compliance consultation to a global corps of privacy officials. In previous roles at McGraw-Hill, Thomas managed the corporation's global gender equity initiative and its multiple mentoring programs, serving as an internal consultant to a grass-roots infrastructure of regional networks on four continents.

Prior to joining McGraw-Hill, Thomas served as director of programs and projects for the Women Faculty Forum (WFF) at Yale University, developing and expanding programs to promote gender equity and conducting policy research to advance WFF advocacy on issues of mentoring, diversity, faculty development and family-friendly workplace policies.

Thomas holds a BA degree in Humanities from Yale University. She earned her Certified International Privacy Professional (CIPP) certification from the International Association of Privacy Professionals in 2008.