Team Leads

FRED ASBELL

Fred Asbell is a respected expert in project development and management, coalition development, issue management and government relations. Fred has held senior leadership positions in the Federal government, at national political committees, and managed and consulted on national, state and local candidate, as well as issue campaigns.

From mid-2007 until spring 2011, he worked with former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s “American Solutions” committee, as their Director of Education Policy. He was responsible for national policy development and thought leadership initiatives, as well as large-scale event development and production. In addition, he managed their coalition program and was responsible for Congressional relations. Earlier in his career, Fred served as Chief of Staff for several Members of Congress including former-Congressman E. Clay Shaw

Fred was Vice President of Government Affairs for Robert Betz Associates, (RBA) a health policy firm in Rosslyn, Virginia. In addition to his government affairs responsibilities, he was also Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Health Industry Group Purchasing Association, a client of RBA.

Fred is a resident of Washington, DC, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, and received a B.S. degree from Jacksonville State University.

E-Mail: Fred.Asbell@gmail.com

WILMA GOLDSTEIN

Wilma Goldstein has a background in management, training and consulting in government, survey and public relations firms, political campaigns and organizations, academic institutions and associations. She has a special emphasis throughout her career on women’s programs and issues. Wilma also has an extensive background in training and lecturing and is an active member of many nonprofits in several capacities including: The Arts Club of Washington, The Whitman Walker Clinic for HIV/AIDS, and the U. S. Small Business Administration.

Among Wilma’s various accomplishments, she has managed The Office of Women’s Business Ownership (OWBO) and has also worked as a project manager for The Hawthorn Group, a Virginia based international public relations group doing issue management on health care and corporate responsibility. She has also served as the Executive Director of The National Women’s Business Council, a Presidential Commission tasked to report annually to The White House, Congress and the U.S. Small Business Administration on the status of women in business.

Her background extends to survey research. Wilma served on the management team of Michigan based Market Opinion Research, taking it from a small local business to one of the top ten research companies in the United States. She also set up and ran Canadian Opinion Research in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Wilma has been involved in politics for decades, where she consulted and managed political and issue campaigns from local to Presidential races. She designed and implemented survey research programs for more than l00 U.S. House and Senate races and helped develop communications research techniques that generated the first generic national political television spots.

E-Mail: goldsteinwilmadc@gmail.com

TERRI HORNBACH-TORRES, APR

For more than 25 years, Terri Hornbach-Torres has applied award-winning PR skills and grass-roots sensibility to addressing the issues that can make – or break – successful organizations. Her pragmatic approach to issues management helps organizations avert crises and garner support by anticipating and pro-actively addressing the concerns of those who have a vested interest in the organization’s success.

Terri has successfully managed issues as diverse as biohazard disposal, union negotiations, RICO allegations, medication errors, and research ethics. In these sensitive situations, she worked closely and effectively with news media, senior management, unions, scientists, physicians, attorneys, voters and community groups.

Terri is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America and is a past president of the Cincinnati Editors Association. In 1999, she was named to the Cincinnati Business Courier’s annual “Top 40 Under 40” list. She has received more than two dozen awards from professional associations for writing, media relations and marketing communications.

Terri holds a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Miami University, and has completed graduate business coursework at Xavier University.

E-Mail: tht45242@gmail.com

LARRY SWENSON

Larry Noel Swenson, is the founder of Noel International, an international training and consulting organization that specializes in team building, cross cultural training and world music programs for people of all ages — from corporate executives to children. Noel International is also well-known for training programs for language teachers, to assist them in integrating the arts into their classrooms and increase the ability of their students to retain the sounds and pronunciation of the language. In Argentina, Larry created a special course university for language teachers and trained others to teach it to future students. Noel International training programs are provided in English, Spanish and Swedish, and Larry regularly does training in Mexico City, Mexico, Japan and China.

Larry, the international Minnesotan, grew up as a 4-H member on a small farm south of Lake Park, and has lived all over the world. Larry has been the Dean of three Concordia Language schools in China, a Rotary Foundation Scholar in Calcutta, India, an exchange student in Egypt. Larry helped develop a sister-city relationship between Lake Park, Minnesota, and Äppelbo, Sweden. Throughout his career, Larry has been recognized for his ability to organize young people, neighbors and volunteers. When water pollution was threatening streams and water life in every state, Larry created an original production, “Pollution Solution,” which was performed by a cast of 30 young people at the U.S. Capitol and in 5 states, for which he received a volunteer award from the Clean Rivers Project by the Governor of Minnesota.

One of his latest projects is designed to build and celebrate cultural understanding between people living in the U.S. – immigrants and native born. The program is an educational/cultural/musical extravaganza for communities and schools, called “The Mexican and the Minnesotan.” And just for the fun of it, he has recorded three CD\’s of international children\’s songs, and has another CD on the way. Larry is fluent in Spanish.

E-Mail: larry.swenson@gmail.com