The vice president of government affairs and our lobbyist have been very busy in 2021.  This was the year that the office of VP for Government Affairs was up for election.  With Adrienne Davis taking President-Elect-Elect, Kelly Caldwell came in as the new VP for Government Affairs. Our lobbyist with The Southern Group is now Wanda Crotwell. 

 Kelly Caldwell is a Speech-Language Pathologist for AnMed Health Voice Clinic where she has been since 2017.  Prior to that, Kelly worked at Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System in acute care.  She also works PRN for Prisma Health Baptist Easley Hospital.  In addition to those duties, Kelly is a mentor for The Medical SLP Collective.  Her primary clinical interests are in voice, swallowing, and upper airway disorders. She has a three-year-old son named Cameron, husband Charlie, and a cat and dog, Claire, and Copland. In terms of advocacy, Kelly was successful in leading advocacy efforts to change ASHA’s guidance on endoscopy during the COVID-19 pandemic during August 2020 to match ever-changing evidence.  Her goals as Vice President of Government Affairs include advocacy for solving state-level problems, building relationships with SLPs across SC to help ensure that our advocacy is in response to their problems, and continuing the streamlined approach of identifying problems in policy or legislation that affect our profession.  Before becoming an SLP, Kelly worked as a music educator in North Carolina, went back to school for Speech Pathology, and relocated to upstate South Carolina.  She lives in Easley, SC and works in Anderson, SC.  She has a Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance, Master of Arts in Teaching from UNC Chapel Hill, and Master of Science in Communication Sciences and Disorders from East Carolina University.

Wanda Crotwell is a government relations professional with more than 30 years of experience in the fields of government, communications, and public relations. Prior to joining The Southern Group, she was a lobbyist and strategic advisor at Mike Daniel and Associates for seven years.  Before joining MD&A in 2012, she was assistant to the Commissioner for External Affairs at the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, where she served under four separate commissioners and managed governmental affairs, legislative services, constituent services, annual budget requests, accountability reports, internal communications, and media relations.  In this capacity, she also served as policy advisor and strategic counsel to the Commissioner.

Her areas of expertise include legislative relations, lobbying, inter-governmental relations, strategic communication planning and implementation, regulatory development and consultation, environmental and health facilities permitting facilitation, speech writing, management, business communications, public speaking, and a first-hand understanding of state government.  She also possesses a keen understanding of the legislative process and the skills necessary to navigate that process for multiple issues at once.  She is well-known in the legislative arena for her ability to take complex issues and communicate those issues in understandable terms to achieve desired results.