Lobbying world

Josie Villanueva, former counselor to the secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services under President Biden, is returning to Fulcrum Public Affairs as a vice president. She worked at Fulcrum for four months before joining the department in April. Before that, she was deputy chief of staff and legislative director to Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.).

ROKK Solutions hired John LaBombard as a senior vice president on its executive leadership team. LaBombard was previously communications director to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) for more than three years and before that worked for about 11 years for former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) as deputy campaign manager and communications director.

ROKK Solutions also hired James Nash as a senior vice president on its executive leadership team. Nash previously worked as press secretary for the National Governors Association for more than three years. Before that, he was a statehouse reporter at Gannett and director of communications in the office of the Los Angeles City Controller.

Douglas Kalman will be joining the Natural Products Association as the organization’s director of scientific affairs. He previously was an adjunct professor of sports nutrition at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, where he still teaches part time. 

Kathy Bañuelos will join the Motion Picture Association as senior vice president of state government affairs. She previously was vice president of government affairs for NBCUniversal, a post she held for 11 years. She will replace Vans Stevenson, who has led the state government affairs department for 26 of his 32 years at the association.