Administrative Assistant Management

Aaron B. Hughes, M.A._**** North Fry Road #****_Katy, Texas 77449

(832) 441-1194_abhugh@*******.**********@*****.***

MANAGEMENT PROFILE AND CORE COMPETENCIES:

• Government and public affairs, strategic communications and political consulting since 1995

• Collegiate teaching and mentoring at 15 colleges and universities, across 3 states, since 1990

• Quantitative and qualitative research and analysis

• Strategic planning, critical partnership development and public engagement

• Program, policy, project and process development, implementation, management and evaluation

• Special event, conference and meeting planning, facilitation, coordination, management and evaluation

• Staff, volunteer, team and organizational recruitment, development, leadership, training, mentoring, supervision and evaluation

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Government and Public Affairs, Strategic Communications and Political Consultant, Hughes Group Corporation, 1995-2011:

• Provided comprehensive government and public affairs, strategic communications, critical partnership development, public engagement and political consulting, development, analysis, implementation, administration, management and evaluation. Primary clients were entrepreneurs, public officials, candidates for public office and public and private organizations.

• Conducted comprehensive qualitative and quantitative research on, critically analyzed and wrote detailed reports on local, state and national legislative, strategic communications, political, regulatory, policy, program and judicial issues.

• Created, planned, coordinated, managed, executed and evaluated public engagement, strategic communications, critical partnership development, strategic planning and business management initiatives, events, programs and policies.

• Developed, coordinated, implemented, managed and evaluated lobbying, stakeholder education and grassroots political advocacy campaigns, strategies, tactics and protocols.

• Wrote formal and informal speeches, program scripts for special events, text for media advertisements, policy papers, analytical reports, business process architecture analyses as well as sales, marketing and product development plans.

• Planned, coordinated, managed and evaluated special events.

• Created, taught, and evaluated corporate training and continuing education classes, policies, programs and processes.

• Developed, implemented and evaluated crisis management, crisis communications and business continuity protocols.

• Wrote business process architecture, sales, marketing and product development plans.

• Created, implemented and evaluated multimedia marketing strategies.

Assistant Director of Community, Government and International Relations, Rice University, 2005-2006:

• Advanced the university’s community, government and international relations agenda by developing, implementing and evaluating community engagement, government relations and international affairs programs, initiatives, strategies, tactics and protocols at this private, highly selective research university attended by 6,000 students.

• Provided strategic advice and consultation to the president, provost and other senior university officials regarding the development and implementation of that agenda.

• Lobbied elected and appointed officials regarding the adoption and implementation of legislation, regulations, policies, programs and court decisions.

• Tracked, analyzed, managed the university’s compliance with and wrote detailed critical analyses of legislation, regulations, policies, programs, budgets and court decisions.

• Managed the international protocol office and collaborated with federal and foreign officials regarding the logistics, protocol and other aspects of campus visits by international elected officials and other foreign dignitaries.

• Increased the visibility and enhanced the financial, competitive and strategic position of the university by developing critical partnerships with stakeholders. This included elected and appointed officials at all levels of government, the 83 members of the Houston Consular Corps, the owners of the 246 businesses in the Rice Village, officials at the 4 public schools near the university and local, state, national and international higher education and scientific organizations.

• Recruited, developed, lead, trained, supervised, mentored and evaluated 60 student ambassadors who assisted with the execution of university wide and external special events; the 250 members of The Rice Vote Coalition, a diverse, bipartisan advocacy group of faculty, staff and students that conducted voter registration and education drives and encouraged greater student engagement in civic affairs; and, in the capacity of chief election administrator and volunteer deputy voter registrar, the 100 students who served as volunteer deputy voter registrars, presiding judges, alternate judges and election clerks at the campus polling station, Precinct 361, on election day.

• Supervised the coordinator of the university’s welcome center and an administrative assistant in the community, government and international relations office.

• Planned, facilitated, coordinated, managed and evaluated university wide and external special events, meetings and conferences including the quarterly public affairs stakeholder outreach luncheon.

Senior Community Outreach and Government Affairs Representative, The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas, 2001-2003:

• Led a team of 10 community liaisons that conducted all public engagement and strategic partnership development with 450,000 bus riders and other stakeholders in a 1,285 square mile service area, comprising 75% of Harris County, the 3rd largest county in the nation.

• Coordinated staff assignments for all external affairs activities and initiatives.

• Spearheaded all collaborative efforts with public and private stakeholders.

• Managed all special projects designed to advance agency programs, services and initiatives.

• Managed and evaluated all public engagement and strategic partnership development for “METRO Solutions”, the agency’s 25-year, $640 million improvement and expansion plan. Under the plan, which was approved by 51% of voters in a referendum in November of 2003, the agency’s leadership proposed to build 73 additional miles of light rail, increase bus service by 50% and add over 250 miles of two-way, all-day local and express bus service.

• Planned, conducted and evaluated all public engagement and strategic partnership development in Southwest, West and Northwest Houston including executing the public engagement campaign for the “Uptown-West Loop Corridor Study”, 1 of the 4 analyses which comprised the “METRO Solutions” plan.

• Recruited, developed, lead, trained, mentored, supervised and evaluated staff and management volunteers for internal and external special events including the agency’s annual Asian-Pacific Heritage Month Luncheon.

• Coordinated and moderated quarterly public hearings on proposed schedule and service modifications and the annual public hearing on the capital and operating budgets.

EDUCATION: Master of Arts in Political Science, with concentrations in American Government, Urban Politics and International Relations, Temple University; Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communications, Cum Laude, with a minor in Political Science, Texas Southern University.

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