Missy Mandell, owner of Mandell & Associates, has been working to build strong connections between the public and private sector for more than 30 years. During that time, Mandell has worked on some of the most challenging issues on the public agenda from inflation in the 1970s to natural resource management today.

Mandell is best known for her understanding of her clients and their constituents and her inclusive, fair-minded approach to solving problems. Nationally, and in Texas, her reputation for helping organizations succeed, often in the face of extraordinary public scrutiny is strong.

A native of Austin, Texas, she began her career in 1975 in Washington, DC, working for a government relations firm. There she heard about a peanut farmer from Georgia who was facing an uphill battle for the 1976 presidential election. Former President Jimmy Carter’s honesty in government gained many supporters, including Mandell, who was hired by his presidential campaign at age 25 to run his DC and mid-Atlantic regional offices.

When Carter was elected President, Missy joined his White House staff as Special Assistant to the Deputy Director for Budget in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a position that called for her to bring together diverse governmental entities, some of whom had conflicting agendas.. She quickly learned about the importance of building consensus, As Deputy Advisor to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs she worked with business, labor and government about the need to join forces to tackle one of the toughest issues facing the Carter administration: inflation.

In the 1980s Mandell chose to become an entrepreneur. She owned and managed a cable and satellite television company in Central Texas, Bluebonnet Cable, and owned a public relations company with clients in both public and private industries. In 1986, she signed on as campaign manager for U.S. Representative J.J. “Jake” Pickle in Austin and continued to work on many local, state and federal campaigns. In 1989, she joined the staff of the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), which provides energy, water and community services in 58 counties in Central Texas.

Mandell was a member of the Lower Colorado River Authority’s (LCRA) senior management team for nearly 20 years. Her collaborative skills were used in many capacities in that organization whose success depends as much on meeting the needs of communities as it does on building successful partnerships with local, state and federal government entities. In her most recent position as Executive Manager of Federal Governmental Relations, Mandell served as the liaison between LCRA and the U.S. Congress, federal regulatory agencies, elected officials, industry organizations and interest groups. She represented LCRA nationally to secure federal dollars for important water supply projects. She also worked on legislation involving fuel and energy issues, air quality, water quality, rail transportation, and regulatory and telecommunications issues. In the early 1990s, during a time of deregulation of the utilities industry, Missy opened the floodgates of communication between LCRA and its 54 wholesale electric customers (cities and co-ops), establishing the organization’s first community and customer relations department.

As LCRA’s Executive Director of Conservation and Environmental Protection, she worked with communities around the Highland Lakes in Central Texas to develop a Non-Point Source Water Quality Ordinance, a controversial but much-needed ordinance that protects the water quality of the Highland Lakes while also allowing surrounding communities the freedom to grow.

Mandell also created and managed the outreach strategy for a controversial water-sharing project between LCRA and the City of San Antonio that required tremendous information sharing and consensus-building among elected officials, community groups, environmental groups, landowners and farmers as well as state and federal agencies. Throughout her career, Mandell has maintained a focus on true public engagement that goes beyond the “party line.”

“Whether they’re public or private, organizations need the support of their constituents and customers to be successful,” Missy says. “By building consensus, businesses as well as governments can save time and money, avoid controversy, and develop better products and services to earn the support of those who are critical to their success.”

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