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Congressional Expertise

As a public speaker, Ilona Nickels brings many years of Capitol Hill experience to her non-partisan presentations, including six years as Resident Scholar for C-SPAN, where she answered questions about politics, elections, and the Congress for C-SPAN viewers, on-air and on-line. Ms. Nickels lectures on:

• How Congress REALLY Works
• The Politics of Legislating
• Influencing the Legislative Process

She is a regular lecturer for the Brookings Institution, the Washington Campus MBA Program, and American University’s American Politics program. Ms. Nickels also gives speeches nationwide for various trade associations, conventions, conferences, and seminars.

Ms. Nickels began her career as a congressional staff aide, working four years in the House of Representatives and three years in the U.S. Senate. She then joined the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress as a congressional analyst. Her primary responsibilities at CRS were training Members of Congress and their staff in House and Senate floor procedures, and included extensive assignments, on detail, in the office of the Senate Minority Leader and the House Majority Leader. She then served as Resident Congressional Scholar at the C-SPAN Networks, as well as research scholar for the Center on Congress at Indiana University.

In addition to giving lectures and speeches, Ms. Nickels is the author of Why Congress Matters, a publication offered for sale in the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center. She also writes Capitol Corner, a Q and A column featured on this and other websites. Ms. Nickels has appeared on the Fox News Channel and CNN.com, and is quoted in newspapers nationwide.