Kerry McKenney

Kerry McKenney was named Vice President of the Monument-Strategies firm after three decades of public service on Capitol Hill. She began her career in the personal Congressional office of Agriculture Subcommittee Chairman Dawson Mathis of Georgia, later moving on to become Legislative Director to Representative Wayne Dowdy of Mississippi, a member of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. In that position, she also served as liaison to the Veterans Affairs' Subcommittee, which the Congressman chaired. In recent years she served as Chief of Staff to the late Representative Donald M. Payne of New Jersey, a senior member of the Education and Labor Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee, where he served as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health. As Chief of Staff, she represented Chairman Payne on various international visits to areas of Asia, Europe and Africa. She also served as Press Secretary, and in that capacity appeared on CNN, Fox News and other media outlets during the crisis in Somalia. She recently appeared on the Maryland Public Television program The Next Word to discuss her work with the Niall Mellon Townships Initiative, a non-profit whose mission is to build homes to replace shacks in the townships of South Africa. As a Congressional staffer, Kerry was successful in helping secure federal appropriations for a number of projects in New Jersey, including key funding for several transportation projects. She also advised Chairman Payne on issues related to the Northern Ireland peace process following the Good Friday accord. Kerry is active in a number of organizations. While working on Capitol Hill, she served on the Board of the bipartisan House Chiefs of Staff and prior to that, the Congressional Legislative Staff Association. An active volunteer, she currently serves on the Board of Nyumbani, a charity dedicated to the care of abandoned and orphaned children impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Kenya. She is also on the Advisory Board of the South Africa-Washington International Program and is associated with a number of Irish American groups, including the American Ireland Fund and the Washington Ireland Program. She was recognized as Outstanding Volunteer by Everybody Wins, a reading program serving Washington, D.C. youngsters. In addition, she received the Ed Krenik Award from the Cancer Institute of New Jersey in recognition of her work to help establish the Dean & Betty Gallo Prostate Cancer Center. 

She is a graduate of the University of Delaware, where she held an editorial position on the college newspaper, The Review.