Dru Schmidt-Perkins, the former longtime executive director of the group 1000 Friends of Maryland, will be hanging her hat this General Assembly session with the “white-hat” Annapolis lobbying firm, Gally Public Affairs Inc. She will join the existing team of Eric Gally, the company president, and Richard Norling, the former president of the American Association of Community Colleges.
Gally Public Affairs is one of the few lobbying firms in town that advocates almost exclusively for nonprofit organizations. The firm’s clients this year include Advocates for Children and Youth, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Maryland Academy of Family Physicians, Maryland Pesticide Education Network and MedMark Treatment Centers.
Schmidt-Perkins stepped down as leader of 1000 Friends in 2017, after 19 years on the job, and has been consulting since then. She previously served as regional director for the group Clean Water Action.
“I’ve worked with Dru for years on a variety of issues and she is one of the smartest, hardest working people I know,” Gally said. “We needed some extra capacity and she fits the bill perfectly.”