A trio of aides to Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) this week launched Magnify Strategies, a boutique political consulting and government relations firm. Duckworth’s reelection campaign will be one of the first clients for Kaitlin Fahey, formerly her chief of staff; Paul Kohnstamm, her operations director; andLeah Israel, a top Democratic fundraiser.

— In an interview, Fahey said that though the firm will offer government affairs help, Magnify will not lobby, instead advising clients internally and working with their existing government relations staff.

Her chief of staff and two others go, with the senator’s re-election team already lined up as a client.

Danielle Melfi will be executive director, Leah Israel will be development adviser, Rachel Irwin will be director of messaging strategy, Rosemary Boeglin will be deputy director of comms and advocacy, Katie Fricchione will be deputy director of political and advocacy, Rubén Lebrón will be voting rights director, Ari Appel will be climate director, Mairead Cahill will be advocacy operations manager and Marissa Johnson will be special projects and operations manager.

Watch the Tammy Duckworth’s Speech here.

Northwestern University School of Professional Studies (SPS) MPPA graduate Kaitlin Fahey does not consider herself much of a “social butterfly.” So it was with some reluctance that at age 22, recently graduated from Georgetown University and working as a legislative staffer on Capitol Hill, she randomly decided to attend a large D.C. fundraiser.

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with Paul Kohnstamm. Paul is an EMBA format in our Class of 2020, and he currently works on Capitol Hill. With our upcoming MBAs and Public Policy Information Session (18 October) on the horizon, we sat down with Paul to talk about his background, the case for an MBA for policy professionals, what he has enjoyed about the program so far, and his advice for prospective students. Pro Tip: Catch up on our earlier interviews with our program’s current and former politicos – Zack Golden, Julie Lassiter and Freddy Barnes/Steve Gilleland.