NCSL Staff Directory

As a project manager on the Health team, Tammy Jo Hill supports work related to behavioral health, public health and maternal and child health. Previously, Hill spent years supporting Colorado’s Medicaid program as a program manager and policy specialist for its fee-for-service state contractors. Hill has a master’s degree in political science from Colorado State University. 

As a policy specialist, Kate Bryan researches a variety of issues concerning criminal and civil justice. Bryan comes to NCSL with experience in the legal field as well as health care. Bryan holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Colorado as well as a Master of Science in Law from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.

Nicole Ezeh supports the Law, Criminal Justice and Public Safety Standing Committee as an associate legislative director. Previously, Ezeh supported human trafficking victim services providers in the state of Maryland at its federally recognized state coalition against sexual assault. She earned her law degree at George Mason University and her B.A. in government and politics at the University of Maryland.

Charlie Severance-Medaris supports NCSL’s public health work as a project manager for the Health Program. He has previous experience in health policy through work at many Colorado nonprofits. Severance-Medaris is an expert in state policies relating to suicide prevention, drug misuse and overdose prevention and infectious disease prevention. 

As an associate director in NCSL’s Environment, Energy and Transportation Program, Kim Tyrrell leads a team of environmental policy experts and uses her expertise to support research and policy insight on air and water quality, climate resilience, waste management and other issues. Tyrrell also manages a Department of Energy program that facilitates cooperation among federal, state and tribal governments on a number of energy and environmental issues. She served two terms on Colorado’s Pollution Prevention Advisory Board, worked at the state and national levels on a variety of environmental policy issues and played a key role in the development of the Colorado Electric Vehicle and Infrastructure Readiness Plan. She has her MBA from the University of Denver and is a LEED Accredited Professional. 

Jenna Bannon serves as associate director in the Children and Families Program. She manages multiple grants in early childhood and child welfare and co-leads the interdisciplinary work on child and family policy. Bannon comes to NCSL with more than 25 years of experience in state legislative policy, working for a governor, state legislators, state agencies and nonprofits. She worked for NCSL from 1998-2000 and is excited to be back working at the national level to support the success of legislators and legislative staff. 

Kelsie George is a senior policy specialist with the NCSL Health Program, specializing in health workforce policy issues. Her work with state legislators, legislative staff and other partners includes conducting legislative research, writing policy publications, providing services to support state legislatures and planning and conducting meetings. George joined NCSL in 2020 and previously worked with academics, translating their research to a policymaking audience. She has a master’s degree in public policy from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and a bachelor’s degree in international studies from St. Norbert College in Green Bay, Wis.

As a policy specialist with the Legislative Staff Services Program, Megan McClure supports the Leadership Staff Professional Association, the National Legislative Program Evaluation Society and the NCSL Young and New Professionals Group. She coordinates peer review for legislative program evaluation and performance audit offices. Her research focuses on leadership offices, caucuses, program evaluation and performance audit office staffing and operations, ​​​​internship and page programs, and legislative civics education programs. Previously, McClure spent over 10 years in academic librarianship and publishing. She is co-host and lead producer of NCSL’s limited-series podcast “Building Democracy: The Story of Legislatures.” 

As a senior policy specialist for NCSL’s Children and Families Program, Jill Yordy researches public policy related to child and family well-being. Yordy comes to NCSL with more than eight years of experience in public policy research, practice and advocacy. She is currently working toward a Ph.D. in public affairs from the University of Colorado Denver.

As a tribal working group specialist, Tansey Moore provides staff lead support to the Nuclear Energy Tribal Working Group by planning and facilitating meetings to address nuclear energy issues as it relates to tribal nations. Moore has more than 20 years of experience working with tribal nations on a variety of issues such as environmental impacts and tribal-state relations. Moore is dedicated to bridging communication between tribes, federal agencies and states.

In her role as senior program coordinator, Melanie Horton supports NCSL's Environment Program as well as several state and tribal working groups, which NCSL supports through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy. Horton has nearly 15 years of experience providing administrative and program support to mission-driven organizations in both the public and private sectors. She earned her bachelor’s degree in media studies from the University of Southern Maine in 2006 and her master’s degree in environmental leadership from Naropa University in 2011. 

As a program principal in the Education Program, Molly Gold focuses on teacher, school leader, and school governance policy. Prior to joining NCSL, Gold worked as a high school English teacher and department chair and as an analyst with the Colorado Department of Education. She has a master's in public policy with a specialization in K-12 education policy from Vanderbilt University. 

As director of NCSL’s Health Program, Tahra Johnson oversees the public health and maternal and child health projects and research at NCSL. Johnson has been with NCSL for more than seven years and has several additional years of experience in public health policy at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the Department of Homeland Security. She earned a master’s degree in public health at George Washington University and attended undergraduate at American University in Washington, D.C.  

As director of the Environment, Energy and Transportation program at NCSL, Jim Reed oversees the collaborative efforts of 15 outstanding colleagues in state legislative bill tracking and analysis, policy research and writing, grant project oversight, staffing task forces and working groups, fundraising and responding to constituent inquiries. Reed has 40 years of experience in state public policy analysis and project management, serving 33 of those years with NCSL. Through legislative testimony, presentations, and an extensive collection of published documents, he regularly shares his national policy expertise in military and veterans’ affairs, transportation, Native American tribal issues, daylight saving time, nuclear issues and intergovernmental relations.

In his role as a policy analyst, Landon Jacquinot researches state policy on minimum wage, occupational licensing, and workforce development. Jacquinot comes to NCSL with experience working with and around state legislatures as a policy and administrative manager for a hydrogen trade association. He is steadfast in his support for state-level institutions and is happy to be working for an organization with a similar mission.

Sunny Deye is an associate director in NCSL’s Education Program and serves as the liaison to her home state of Oregon. Deye leads the postsecondary education team in tracking and analyzing legislation in all 50 states, publishing state policy issue briefs and reports, creating professional development opportunities for state legislators and staff, and conducting NCSL’s annual Legislative Institute on Higher Education. Before joining NCSL in 2005, Deye served as legislative staff in the bill drafting office of the Colorado General Assembly. She holds a bachelor’s in political science from the University of Oregon and a master’s degree in politics and public policy from the University of Colorado Denver.

As a project manager in NCSL’s Fiscal Affairs Program, Emily Maher focuses on state budgets, intergovernmental relations and economic development policy. She also staffs NCSL’s Labor and Economic Development Committee. Prior to joining NCSL, Maher served as a nonpartisan policy analyst for the city of Philadelphia where she worked on retirement and economic development policy. She received her bachelor’s degree in political science and international service from American University, where she is also currently pursuing a master’s in public administration and policy.

Sarah Brown is the director of the Criminal and Civil Justice Program (CCJ) at NCSL. As the director, she oversees all of NCSL’s criminal and civil justice work, with specific expertise in juvenile justice. Brown has been with NCSL for 20 years working on informing state legislatures on criminal and civil justice issues across the nation. Prior to joining NCSL, Brown worked for five years as a legislative assistant to a United States Senator in Washington, D.C. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado and earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of Denver College of Law. Brown has been admitted to practice law in Colorado.