Director’s Desk
GAI | January 12, 2017
After more than 25 years with the Government Affairs Institute, including 23 years as Director, I’m retiring at the end of the month. Kristin Nicholson, longtime Chief of Staff to Congressman Jim Langevin and a 20 year veteran of the House of Representatives will become GAI Director on February 1.
It’s been a great run. While it’s difficult to put into words how much being GAI Director has meant to me, I’ve long felt, and told many of you, that I had the best job in Washington. If it’s not the dream of every young political science major to one day be GAI Director, it should be.
When I first came to GAI in 1989 we were part of the US Office of Personnel Management. In my first year, GAI was part of four reorganizations at OPM, and in 1995 was reorganized right out of the federal government. After a brief stop at the Brookings Institution, GAI became part of Georgetown University in 1997.
Even after privatization, our mission never changed – to educate federal personnel about how Congress works, and how to work and communicate more effectively with Congress. In the current political environment, that mission is more critical than ever.
I am grateful to have worked with many incredible people over the years – starting with a wonderful group of colleagues at OPM, without whom none of this would have been possible; my current staff; my colleagues at Georgetown University; our clients; and the tens of thousands of participants who have attended our classes over the years.
Being GAI Director has been incredibly rewarding, and there’s hardly a day in the last 25 years that I haven’t learned something new. It’s also been great fun, and there’s much that I’ll miss, most of all the really smart and funny people that I’ve had the privilege to work with.
-Ken Gold
Categories: Director's Desk, Updates