Please join The Fund for American Studies (TFAS) on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, at The Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C., for a special celebration honoring today’s congressional and business leaders and supporting our future leaders – the 2025 TFAS students.

Your involvement will make a powerful difference in our nation’s future by enabling students with outstanding leadership potential to attend the TFAS D.C. Summer Programs track on Business + Government Relations.

DETAILS

July 9, 2025

Reception 6 p.m.
Dinner 7 p.m.

The Four Seasons Hotel
2800 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20007

Business Dress

Tickets + Registration

Individual tickets are available for $500.

Recent alumni from classes 2020 to 2024 qualify for an alumni-discounted ticket for $150. To purchase a recent alumni ticket, please contact Derek Jenks at djenks@TFAS.org.

Register Here

QUESTIONS?

For more information, please reach out to Kathie Russo, director of corporate and donor relations, at krusso@TFAS.org or Derek Jenks, director of development events and activities, at djenks@TFAS.org.

SPONSORSHIPS

To view sponsor levels and benefits, please view the 2025 sponsorship commitment form here.

TFAS is pleased to present U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito with the 2025 TFAS Congressional Leadership Award. In 2014, Senator Capito became the first female U.S. Senator in West Virginia’s history and was reelected in 2020 with the largest margin of victory for a Republican in state history – winning more than 70% of the vote and all 55 counties.

She served West Virginia’s Second Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for 14 years and was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates for four years prior. Capito decided to run for the U.S. Senate to be an even stronger voice for the Mountain State. She also saw an opportunity to restore order to a Senate stuck in gridlock for far too long. She believes that today’s challenges demand bipartisan solutions and cooperation across the aisle to advance legislation that benefits West Virginia, and the country as a whole.

For the 119th Congress, Capito serves on the Appropriations Committee; the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee; the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee as Chairman; and the Rules and Administration Committee. Capito also serves as Chairman of the Senate Republican Policy (RPC) Committee, the fourth highest position in Senate Republican leadership.

Capito has been a member of the Appropriations Committee since she became a Senator in 2015 and currently serves as the Chairman of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, where she oversees funding across a wide range of programs within the U.S. Departments of Labor, Education, Health and Human Services (HHS), and other independent agencies. In addition to her current Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee chairman role, Capito has chaired the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee, the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, and the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.

As Chairman of the EPW Committee, Capito is committed to promoting a commonsense regulatory strategy and protecting affordable, reliable energy production; building our nation’s infrastructure and encouraging economic development.

On the Commerce Committee, Capito oversees ways to address many issues that are critical to West Virginia, most notably broadband expansion, which she has been a leading voice on since she came to Congress. This committee assignment allows Capito to continue advocating for improved connectivity in West Virginia.

A lifelong West Virginian, Capito holds a bachelor’s degree in zoology from Duke University and a master’s degree in education from the University of Virginia. She and her husband Charles L. Capito, Jr. reside in Charleston, West Virginia. They have three adult children: two sons and one daughter, and they also have been blessed with eight grandchildren.

TFAS is pleased to present Kirk Blalock with the 2025 TFAS Business Leadership Award. Blalock is the managing partner of Fierce Government Relations, an all Republican lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. He joined Fierce Government Relations in 2002 after serving President George W. Bush as special assistant to the President and Deputy Director, White House Office of Public Liaison. He was Bush’s lead staff liaison to the U.S. business community. Since joining Fierce Government Relations, Blalock has focused on firm management and new client development, while providing strategic counsel to Fierce Government Relations’s clients. Before his Presidential appointment, Blalock served in several key positions, including director of external affairs, Philip Morris Companies Inc., special assistant to Chairman Haley Barbour, Republican National Committee and special assistant to U.S. Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander.

He is a long-time member of the Board of Visitors at The Fund for American Studies, a former member of the Board of Governors of the Bryce Harlow Foundation, a member of the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., and co-chairman of St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School $45 million Capital Campaign – Saints Together, Our Campaign for Community. The Stone Mountain, Georgia native is a graduate of Auburn University. He resides in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife Kristen and has two children Maddie and Makin.

TFAS is pleased to present Desiree Koetzle ’02, PPF ’07, with the 2025 Alumni Achievement Award. Desiree has over 20 years of experience in lobbying and congressional staff work as a senior aide to two members of Congress from the state of Minnesota. She is currently in her 7th year serving as chief of staff to Congressman Pete Stauber (R-MN-08).

Desiree was the first person in her immediate and extended family to earn an undergraduate degree – obtaining a Bachelor’s of Science in mass communications and a Bachelor’s of Arts in communication studies, graduating in 2003.

Desiree participated in TFAS’s Business + Government Relations program track in 2002, and she has continued to give back to the TFAS community since her life-changing internship experience. She has successfully advised Congressman Stauber as his chief of staff after he successfully flipped the seat from being Democrat-held to Republican. She also led the campaign team to enable him to be the first Republican to be re-elected in Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District in 75 years. Under Desiree’s guidance and leadership, she helped her boss secure Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District to a solid Republican seat, with the last cycle having the highest voter turnout of all Minnesota Congressional Districts and one of the highest voter turnouts in the nation in the 2024 election.

Desiree recently participated in the Stennis Congressional Staff Fellows Program in the 118th Congress. The Stennis Fellows Program is a bipartisan, bicameral leadership development experience for senior staff members of the U.S. Congress. The program is highly competitive and sought after by senior staff and participants are chosen by their peers from previous classes. These enrichment opportunities are what senior chiefs of staff like Desiree seek out to further leadership potential and expand professional networks. Desiree has also participated in the CAO’s Congressional Excellence Program for nearly six years, which delivers executive coaching to the member of Congress and his team with a seasoned Fortune 50 executive coach. Desiree believes strongly in giving back and often provides assistance, mentorship, and gives advice to her fellow chiefs, entry and mid level staff as well as interns. She has hosted TFAS interns at every position she has worked in Washington, D.C., both downtown as a lobbyist as well as on Capitol Hill. She has participated in several panels as a seasoned Hill staffer, on topics ranging from policy, being a Chief on the Hill, women in politics, mentorship and other topics. She also serves on the board of RightNOW, a national network for women who believe in limited government, fiscal responsibility, free markets and a strong national defense.

She remains active in The Fund for American Studies and assists in the Annual Scholarship Awards Dinner. Desiree and her husband and two sons live in Minnesota where she grew up and she commutes to Washington, D.C., when Congress is in session.

Register Here

Dinner Chair