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Legislative Leadership Breakfast

Tuesday, November 14, 2023 (8:00 AM - 10:00 AM) (EST)

Description

Join the Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC for an exciting new event as we host the leaders of both Chambers of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, Speaker of the House Joanna McClinton and Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward. Speaker McClinton and President Pro Tempore Ward will discuss their legislative priorities, anticipated agendas for their respective Chambers, and the importance of bipartisan cooperation in a divided legislature. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear firsthand from our legislative leaders on how the General Assembly is working to serve the businesses and people of Pennsylvania.

Deadline to register is November 8th!

Meet Our Legislative Leaders!

Speaker of the House Joanna McClinton

Elected to serve communities in Philadelphia and Delaware County in 2015, Joanna McClinton was the first woman elected Democratic Caucus Chair, the first woman elected Democratic Leader and is Pennsylvania’s first woman House Speaker.

A lifelong resident of southwest Philadelphia, she graduated from Grace Temple Christian Academy, LaSalle University, and Villanova University School of Law, and was a public defender and chief counsel to Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams before being elected.

McClinton has earned several distinctions including City and State PA's 40 Under 40, the Barristers' Association of Philadelphia's Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year, and Politico Recast’s Power List.

Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward

Senator Kim Ward currently serves as the Senate President Pro Tempore. She is the first woman in the history of the Pennsylvania Legislature to serve as Senate Pro Tempore and Senate Majority Leader in either the Pennsylvania House or Senate.

In 2008, Senator Ward won the Pennsylvania 39th Senatorial District seat and was the first woman ever elected to that seat. She was re-elected in 2012 and 2016, and most recently in 2020. During the 2019-20 legislative session, she was appointed to the Majority Caucus Administrator position in the Senate. Prior to her election to the Senate, she served as a Westmoreland County Commissioner in 2008, and on the Hempfield Township Board of Supervisors from 2002-07, where she was Chairwoman of the Board.

In her role as Senate Majority Leader and representing the 39th district in Westmoreland, the foundation of every decision by Senator Ward is based on what is good for Pennsylvanians and our Commonwealth.

Reaching across the aisle, Senator Ward has worked in a bipartisan manner to help lead the General Assembly through the COVID-19 pandemic and put measures in place to position the Commonwealth to transition out of crisis and on to a path of prosperity.

Maintaining the balance of government responsibility, to prevent government overreach, was critical during the pandemic, and Senator Ward led efforts to ensure the people’s voice was not lost by advancing a constitutional amendment giving the people a say through the introduction of Senate Bill 2, which instituted the largest transfer of executive power since President Herbert Hoover. Under her leadership, Senator Ward was also able to advance legislation that set best practices in the areas of regulatory reform including hospital funding – making some health care and business waivers permanent – while ensuring fiscal solvency with the state budget and replenishing our state rainy day fund in the last two budget cycles.

As part of an overall strategy to move beyond the economic challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Senator Ward also worked in a bipartisan manner to ensure that Pennsylvania could recover more quickly from an economic perspective by focusing on unleashing our energy potential, positioning small- and medium-sized businesses to thrive and large corporations to stay, grow, invest, and relocate to our state all to create good paying jobs for Pennsylvania workers.

Delivering on that promise, Senator Ward advanced efforts to reduce the Corporate Net Income Tax (CNIT) for Pennsylvania, taking it from one of the highest in the nation to phasing it down to one of the most competitive rates among states. She also helped to provide more certainty for businesses through regulatory reform and make tax code adjustments for small- medium-sized businesses.

Meet our emcee!

Nell McCormack Abom

Sláinte!

It’s how Nell McCormack Abom starts and ends most conversations. She’s a proud American of Irish descent. A Pennsylvania native. An eternal Philly sports fan. A political aficionada. A mother and a natural-born conversationalist. And the host of C-Speak on witf.

Nell has built a career telling stories and starting conversations with some of Pennsylvania’s most compelling people. From governors, C-suite executives and foster children to death-row inmates, Nell delves deeply into the personalities and motivations of PA’s newsmakers—always seeking the context of events that shape our lives.

As a well-regarded broadcast journalist, Nell launched her eponymous public relations firm in 2014 with a simple purpose: To help clients achieve success by telling their stories in the most compelling way. She has won national, state and regional awards for her firm’s representation of a wide range of clients in academia, business, education, health and human services, and nonprofits. Nell has media trained the world-famous Radio City Rockettes and the Red Land U.S. Little League World Series champs, among many other notable figures.

For 12 years, Nell hosted WITF-TV’s Smart Talk, Central PA’s primetime, award-winning public affairs program. The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honored Nell with an Emmy Award as Outstanding Program Host/Moderator, and Smart Talk received numerous Emmy nominations and Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters’ Association awards. The U.S. Army War College selected Nell in 2016 to participate with global security and defense leaders in their prestigious annual National Security Seminar.

Prior to joining WITF, Nell was a senior communications and media advisor to PA Governors Tom Ridge and Bob Casey. Under Ridge, Governing magazine described it as “Pennsylvania’s masterful P.R. machine.” Nell directed and produced PA’s first-ever, multi-live-shot state budget address, wrote and co-produced the national award-winning live broadcast and webcast of the historic Pennsylvania Safe Schools Summit, and collaborated on the PA Association of Broadcasters’ Emmy Award-winning documentary, Fighting Back: Pennsylvania’s Special Session on Crime.

She is a summa cum laude graduate of the Ithaca College Roy H. Park School of Communications. When Nell is not in a TV studio or directing a client’s event, you’ll likely find her cheering on her three children, biking, golfing, or debating politics and the best books, movies and songs of all time. As Nell invites everyone, “Let’s start a conversation!”

Thank you to our sponsors!
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