Susie advises organizations operating at the center of federal decision-making, where legislative strategy, executive authority, oversight, and appropriations converge. She brings decades of experience leading complex operations inside the systems that allocate funding, conduct investigations, and set national policy direction.
She served as Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor at NASA during historic mission execution, overseeing agency operations and cross-government coordination during the James Webb Space Telescope deployment and the Artemis I launch. Her role required aligning appropriations, policy priorities, stakeholder strategy, and congressional accountability across committees and the executive branch.
Before NASA, she spent nearly two decades in the U.S. Senate, including 17 years as Chief of Staff to Senator Bill Nelson. She directed legislative strategy and appropriations negotiations across defense, space, and environmental portfolios, helping secure billions for Everglades restoration, advance the bipartisan RESTORE Act, and shape major defense and transportation legislation.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she led government relations at the National Governors Association, organizing a coalition that secured $500 billion in direct federal assistance for extraordinary response costs. She also held senior roles at the Department of the Interior.
- Chief of Staff & Senior Advisor, NASA
- Chief of Staff, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson
- Director of Government Relations, National Governors Association
- U.S. Department of the Interior
Erikka advises leadership teams facing regulatory exposure and congressional scrutiny. Her expertise lies at the intersection of policy, oversight, media, and public opinion — where perception drives decisions. She understands how oversight and regulatory pressure build inside federal and state institutions and counsels executives and boards on how to shape those dynamics before they escalate.
At the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, she served as Communications Director and later Senior Advisor for Digital Transformation. She led crisis communications during cybersecurity incidents, prepared officials for congressional hearings, and managed intense national scrutiny of federal workforce COVID policy. She increased earned media coverage by 300% and led the rollout of the federal government's first AI hiring policy. She later developed a multi-year modernization roadmap consolidating digital properties serving 8.3 million employees and retirees.
Earlier, she rebuilt the communications function for the 1.3-million-member United Food & Commercial Workers International Union. At Ogilvy and Purple Strategies, she advised multinational corporations and governments on crisis response and regulatory risk, including reversing a proposed 1% Medicare Advantage rate cut into a 1.25% rate increase. She served as Communications Director to U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar and worked for former House Appropriations Chair Dave Obey.
- Communications Director & Senior Advisor, U.S. Office of Personnel Management
- Communications Director, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar
- Senior roles, Ogilvy Public Relations and Purple Strategies
- Communications Director, UFCW International