ANNE DESETA DARCONTE, CAE
Anne DeSeta DarConte, CAE, serves as Senior Advisor of HillStaffer. Ms. DarConte has more than 30 years of federal, state, and local government relations experience and advises clients on strategic advocacy initiatives including messaging, grassroots and grass tops advocacy, Hill Days, advocacy training, and community outreach. Ms. DarConte is an award-winning practitioner whose successful programs have been recommended as models of best practices, and she is often called upon to speak at industry conferences and at universities.
Prior to HillStaffer Ms. DarConte managed a 50-state coalition in the accounting profession, responsible for all advocacy efforts including legislative and regulatory matters, outreach priorities, stakeholder relationships with national and state-based organizations, and support for ad hoc state government relations initiatives. Previously Ms. DarConte served as the Director of Outreach for a 500-member energy trade association, where she created that association’s outreach program. She has also served as Director of Grassroots for a $125MM trade association, responsible for the organization’s grassroots initiatives and Get Out The Vote program which resulted in web traffic increases of 94.5% and 103.5%, respectively. Ms. DarConte began her career in the Florida House of Representatives, where she served as a Senior Legislative Analyst in the Committee on Commerce.
Ms. DarConte is an active leader and Board Member with multiple not-for-profit and women’s organizations. She was recently awarded the Association Executives of North Carolina’s (AENC) Bob Slocum Award for Government Relations and Advocacy Excellence, and previously the Public Leadership Education Network’s (PLEN) Mentor Award for outstanding service and impact on public policy and her role in women’s leadership. Ms. DarConte is currently the Vice Chair of the AENC’s Legislative Reception, and has previously served on the Board of Women in Government Relations, PLEN, and as Chair of ASAE’s Government Relations & Advocacy Professionals Advisory Council. She is a Co-Founder of the Professional Women in Advocacy Conference and Excellence in Advocacy Awards.
Ms. DarConte earned a Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, from Goucher College. She and her husband Bruce, both native New Yorkers and former DC residents and NC residents, reside in Southwest Florida, where they have nicknamed their home, Camp Paradise.