Professional Staff
The professional staff of the Partnership for America are veterans of public policy development and advocacy on wide range of issues critical to the West. They have senior-level experience in the U.S. Congress, the White House, state legislatures, private corporations, agriculture and business trade associations, the natural resource industry, the news media, public relations firms, the renewable energy industry, financial services, think tanks, and on a variety of political campaigns.
Among the issues on which they have extensive experience are these: energy and energy infrastructure, natural resource development, agriculture/ranching, environmental policy, mining, waste management, water resources, air quality, tax policy, regulatory reform (ESA, NEPA, NSR, etc.) and many others.
Short bios on the staff follow:
Paul Poister, Executive Vice President
Paul Poister, the Partnership's Executive Vice President, brings more than 15 years of experience in public affairs and corporate communications to the Partnership for America.
Paul served for 10 years in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House in senior staff positions. His work included serving as a legislative assistant to the U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, executive assistant to Sen. Robert W. Kasten, Jr., (R-WI) and Administrative Assistant to Rep. Joseph K. Knollenberg (R-MI).
Paul came to the Partnership from JohnstonWells, one of the Rocky Mountain Region’s foremost public relations firms, which he joined in 1999. At JohnstonWells, Paul provided communications counsel to a wide range of clients in health care, financial services and telecommunications.
Prior to JohnstonWells, Paul spent three years with American Medical Response (AMR), in Aurora, Colorado, where he was the company’s communications manager for the Rocky Mountain region.
Holly Propst, Director of Public Policy
Holly Propst is the Partnership's Director of Public Policy. She is a veteran of more than two decades as a senior staffer in the U.S. Congress, state legislatures and in corporate environments.
In addition to serving as Director of Public Policy for the Partnership, she also serves as a Commissioner of the Colorado State Land Board. The five-member board oversees and serves as trustees for over 3 million acres of Colorado state trust lands.
After growing up on a cattle ranch in northeastern Colorado, Holly spent 16 years as a senior staffer in the U.S. House of Representatives. Between 1990-1998 she served as Chief of Staff to then-Representative Dan Schaefer of Colorado, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In 1995, Rep. Schaefer was named Chairman of the House Commerce Energy and Power Subcommittee and tagged Holly to oversee his subcommittee activities.
A Colorado native, Holly is still involved in helping to manage her family cattle ranch operations. She earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Denver and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the Colorado and District of Columbia Bar Associations.
Jim Sims, Senior Advisor
The Partnership was founded by Jim Sims, a 25+ year veteran of politics and issue advocacy at the state and federal levels. Jim serves as Senior Advisor to the Partnership.
Jim served in the White House in 2001 as President George W. Bush's Director of Communications for the National Energy Policy Development Group, which helped to craft the recommendations behind the President's National Energy Policy. He also is a 12-year veteran of senior staff positions in the U.S. Senate, including serving as Chief of Staff to former Senate Robert W. Kasten, Jr. (WI). He also served as a staff aide to former U.S. Senator Roger Jepsen (IA) and as a legislative aide to the Iowa State Senate Majority Leader and the Senate GOP Caucus.
Since leaving the U.S. Senate in 1992, Jim has successfully managed a wide variety of state, regional and national issue campaigns on behalf of a variety of associations, coalitions and Fortune 500 and other companies. For example, he and his team crafted and managed the successful national campaign to support greater conservation planning and activities focused on the Greater Sage Grouse, which helped result in the federal government not having to list the species on the Endangered Species list. He currently is helping to lead national campaigns to secure much-needed reforms of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
His team also works closely with a variety of Western Governors and their offices to promote expansion of the West's electric transmission infrastructure, increased investment in clean energy technologies, and innovative strategies to help states benefit from greater economic utilization of carbon dioxide.
Jim's innovative advocacy work has been recognized in the New York Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine, Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, Denver Business Journal, United Press International, Politics Online and other publications.
In addition to serving as Executive Director of the Partnership, Jim also heads the Western Business Roundtable organization. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Center for the New American Century and the Center for the New West, both non-profit public policy think tanks.
A former newspaper reporter, Jim is an honors graduate of Georgetown University. He lives in Golden, Colorado with his wife, Holly Propst, and their three children. In his spare time, he assists on his wife's family's cattle ranch, enjoys woodworking, hunting, fishing and chasing his three kids around the house.
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