Policy Director, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP
Carmencita Whonder is Policy Director for Government Relations D.C., office of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP providing strategic public policy advice to hedge fund, private equity, investment banking and other financial services clients. Whonder previously served as staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development and as principal adviser to Sen. Charles Schumer on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. During the 109th Congress, she worked as minority staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Economic Policy. Prior, she worked for the Gates Millennium Scholars Program/UNCF, a $1 billion initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where she co-designed the Leadership Development Program and funding strategies. In 2000, she worked in Geneva, Switzerland at the World Intellectual Property Organization. Whonder is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Socrates Scholar at the Aspen Institute. She holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Howard University. She is also Founder and CEO of OF WHONDER, a contemporary luxury clothing brand.