Jocelyn Hong
Jocelyn Hong, founder, is a recognized leader in getting her clients the results they seek at the federal level. With over 20 years of experience as a bi-partisan lobbyist. She has successfully pushed through many pieces of stand-alone legislation for her clients and fought against surprise amendments brought up during the debate of complex bills.
She is the chair of the H Street Group, an informal organization of over 100 Asian American lobbyists. Jocelyn is a founding board member of the Asian American Action Fund, which is dedicated to supporting Asian Americans for elected office.
Jocelyn started her career in Washington as staff for U.S. Senator John Glenn and a U.S. Congressman who served on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder.
Recognized by her peers, Jocelyn received the 2021 and 2020 Top Lobbyist Award by The National Institute For Lobbying & Ethics and has been selected to serve as its president for 2022.
John “Scott” Sherrill
John “Scott” Sherrill is a retired senior special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations. He is currently a principal and founding member of Jocelyn Hong and Associates, LLC, providing legislative counsel and administrative operations.
Scott served two years on Capitol Hill in the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce. As a Congressional Fellow on the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, he worked on issues related to oversight of the FDA, Department of Commerce, Federal Trade Commission and Department of Energy. During this time, he staffed congressional hearings on food safety, integrity of the pharmaceutical product supply chain, oil futures and export controls on sensitive technology.
Scott began his federal law enforcement career in 1992 as a criminal investigator with the former Immigration and Naturalization Service where he was involved in all aspects of immigration law enforcement which continued when the agency was moved into DHS in 2003. He was assigned to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force from 2000-2008. Later in his career, Scott moved to the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit at ICE HQ in Washington DC where he oversaw human trafficking investigations, coordinated nationwide outreach programs, and participated in global human trafficking training.
Scott also worked in the ICE Visa Security Program with assignments at the U.S. Consulate in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain.
Scott Sherrill is a graduate of Auburn University. After graduation, he served five years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force including a deployment to the United Arab Emirates as the commander of a security police squadron during Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield.
Rita Norton, Principal
Rita Norton brings 30+ years of State and Federal Government Policy and Advocacy experience building a wealth of connections while establishing the government and political presence in DC and the States for major corporations helping to ensure their voice and concerns were known, understood and considered in the policy and lawmaking processes.
Following several years working on Capitol Hill for the Senate Appropriations Committee, Rita led Federal government Affairs for Hoffmann La-Roche, the youngest woman to lead a DC pharma office at that time. She went on to lead Federal Government Affairs for Amgen and she initiated their State Government Affairs department. She opened the DC Government Affairs office for then $50 billion (revenue) AmerisourceBergen (AB) in 2004, initiating and building their State and Policy departments. She led a team of more than 30 including 9 in-hous, retiring in June 2022 from AB, now a $250 billion Fortune #8 global health care services conglomerate. Rita consulted for AB on the transition supporting the promotion of her successor who she proudly mentored.
During her 25 years in the biopharmaceutical and healthcare industry, she represented these companies through negotiations and enactment of the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003; FDA Reform and the User Fee Acts; the Affordable Care Act (ACA); the Inflation Reduction Act, the COVID pandemic and related stimulus legislation and public-private response, many healthcare and tax State government achievements and many more health care legislative and policy deliberations. With extensive experience building coalitions, grassroots campaigns and programs, Political Action Committees (PAC), including the $1million per cycle AB PAC, and related initiatives required to support policy and legislative success, as well as experience translating complex policy and legislative process and forecasting to C-Suite business leaders, Rita can provide the results oriented and proven success strategies for government focused initiatives.
Rita serves on the Board of Life Sciences Pennsylvania (LSPA), an association that represents more than 850 biopharmaceutical, device, health systems and legal and research-based entities headquartered or with significant presence in PA and she chairs their Board Advocacy Committee. In addition, she serves on the Boards of the Children's Charities Foundation (CCF) which has provided more than $10 million in grants to at-risk children's programs in the DC metro area, and the Cloverleaf Equine Therapy Center, chairing their premier fundraiser in 2023. She has two daughters and resides in Falls Church, VA.
Tom Rice, Principal
Known for his expertise in appropriations and accessing funding solutions, Tom’s reputation for ethical and bipartisan engagement with his colleagues is the foundation to his strong relationships with Members of Congress, professional committee staff, and congressional offices.
As the Senior Director for Legislative Affairs for a leading aeronautical manufacturer for the Department of Defense, he garnered over $1.694 billion worth of Congressional “plus-ups” for his company’s products in the decade he worked there.
In 2020, 100% of the company’s domestic aircraft production in that year’s Defense Appropriations Bill (Fiscal Year 2021) was the result of Tom and his team’s efforts on Capitol Hill. Tom’s skill in interpreting ‘in the weeds’ technical/engineering concepts for Hill staffers and the layperson alike, is key to building momentum and moving complex issues forward.
Tom is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel with 20 years active duty experience. While in the Army, he served in tactical assignments as an aviator, a paratrooper, and in special operations units. His overseas assignments included Okinawa, Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. He served in combat operations with the 82nd Airborne Division in Desert Storm, supported the invasion of Panama, and commanded the aviation unit in disaster relief efforts following hurricane Hugo. Following Desert Storm, he was selected for service in the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR). His final assignment was in the Pentagon as a Special Operations staff officer on the Joint Staff.