Jessamyn Sarmiento
Senior Vice President

Jessamyn Sarmiento has extensive experience directing large-scale, multi-channel global branding and public education campaigns in a career spanning the association, non-profit, political and corporate worlds. Ms. Sarmiento’s track record includes successfully managing complex issues and reputational challenges for top brands and their executives, launching and positioning products and services, and building coalitions and partnerships. At CLS, Ms. Sarmiento provides senior counsel to clients including the American Dental Association and TiVo.

Prior to joining CLS, Ms. Sarmiento served as a partner and group leader in the consumer marketing practice of Fleishman-Hillard, where she advised clients including AARP, International Finance Corporation/World Bank, National Park Service, Library of Congress, Western Union, and International SOS. For nearly five years she was the head of communications and chief spokesperson for National Public Radio (NPR). Prior to NPR, Ms. Sarmiento served as a political appointee in the Clinton Administration, first as the White House press secretary for the southern region of the U.S. and then as the director of media relations for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) where she served as the agency’s principle spokesperson and as the media liaison for the U.S. Coordinator for Kosovo Relief. Ms. Sarmiento also spent two years as a senior manager for a privately held company where she provided guidance to transitional governments in understanding and communicating with western news media and in shaping U.S. public opinion.

Ms. Sarmiento brings deep experience in politics and campaigns, serving as a field organizer and press secretary for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns, as well as organizing and executing advocacy campaigns around issues such as economic security, entitlements, voter rights, and civil rights. She also campaigned and was elected to represent Maryland’s eighth Congressional District at the 1996 Democratic National Convention.

Ms. Sarmiento earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She received a certification from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, where she studied international business.