Michelle Richardson Email and Phone Number

Directed the work of a team of 45 in the D.C. office and 4 offices in Mississippi and have overall responsibility for interviewing, hiring, and onboarding new staff; managed relationships between the Senator and constituents and interest groups with issues before Congress and the federal government; and coordinated all legislative activities over a broad range of public policy issues. Managed correspondence, policy initiatives, and political efforts such as special events.• Supported the Senator’s leadership as Chair of the Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee; Co chair of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the Helsinki Commission); and memberships on the Armed Services, Rules, and Environment & Public Works Committees.• Successfully led the transition following the Congressman’s appointment to the Senate in 2007 and coordinated the work of campaign managers for subsequent elections in 2008, 2012, and 2018.• Led the successful transition to service as Chair of the Commerce Committee and associated upgrade of Committee staff.• Support the Senator’s work as Co-Chair of the Helsinki Commission on staffing.• Led the successful initiative to secure election of the Senator to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) in 2014, which has primary responsibility for maintaining and growing party representation in the Senate, and served as primary liaison to be Committee during the Senator’s tenure as Co-Chair and Vice-Chair.Selected Legislative Achievements• Instrumental in securing passage of the Ships Act, which defines a 355-ship Navy as law of the land and in securing ongoing funding for the required expansion.• Key contributor to passage of the Eureka Act, which sets benchmarks and financial incentives for NIH-funded (National Institutes of Health) research on Alzheimer’s disease. The incentive structure is X-Prize, the same model that was used in the Apollo moonshot program.

I was promoted to Chief of Staff in 2006 prior to his appointment to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat.

After leaving congressional employment in 1999 to undertake a special project at the Mississippi State University Foundation, I returned to Mr. Wicker’s staff in 2001 as Director of Community Relations and Executive Assistant and was promoted to Chief of Staff in 2006 prior to his appointment to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat on December 31, 2007.

I conceived, created, and led the initiative to raise more than $4M to endow a Premier Scholarship Program that funds such student activities as study abroad and research, a program that continues and has grown significantly since its establishment. I also led other fundraising and name-awareness initiatives for the Foundation.