The American Hotel & Lodging Association has named three new additions to its government affairs staff.
Leann Paradise has been named VP of political and member engagement. In this new role, she will work with both the federal and state and local government affairs teams to increase AHLA’s grassroots and political engagement. She will be charged with leading both HotelPAC, AHLA’s political action committee, and HotelsACT, the association’s grassroots platform.
Paradise joins AHLA from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, where she ran the organization’s grassroots programs and issue advocacy campaigns. Before joining NRECA, Paradise spent 10 years at the National Association of Manufacturers in a variety of PAC and grassroots-focused positions.
Haleigh Hildebrand has been named senior director of government and political affairs. She joins AHLA from the Association of State, County and Municipal Employees, where she was assistant political director. In her new role at AHLA, Hildebrand will focus on building out both grassroots and grasstops programs to support both the federal and the state and local advocacy teams.
Finally, Bianca Castillo has joined the association as state and local government affairs coordinator. She is a graduate of Michigan State University.
In the past 18 months, AHLA has tripled the size of its state and local government affairs team. “We are thrilled to welcome Leann, Haleigh and Bianca to our growing team. Their unique and diverse experience will help us improve all facets of AHLA’s government affairs operations,” said Brian Crawford, EVP of government affairs. “AHLA is working tirelessly to support hoteliers and advance policy goals at the federal, state and local levels. And as we look to the next stage of the recovery, we are growing our capacity to better engage policymakers and achieve even more advocacy victories on behalf hoteliers nationwide.”
