With more than twenty years of experience leading public affairs clients to success in defining and executing communications strategies, Missi Tessier is one of Cogent’s most senior professionals.

Missi has built a career on her expertise in message development, communication strategy and campaign management. She spent 13 years on Capitol Hill in a variety of senior communications positions with Republican members of the U.S. House and Senate leadership, and was named several times to Roll Call’s list of the top “Fabulous Fifty” influential congressional staff members.

Following her congressional career, Missi turned her communication skills toward leading communications campaigns for clients at a Washington, D.C., public affairs firm. Her clients have ranged by sector from higher education to telecommunications to financial services to defense and national security, and by enterprise from business to trade association to non-profit to coalition. In addition to message development and communications strategy, Missi’s expertise extends to speech and op-ed writing, coalition formation and management, media outreach and media training. She has prepared clients for major interviews, speeches and presentations, and investigations.

A performer at heart, Missi is a former board member of Hexagon, Inc., Washington, D.C.’s only original political satirical musical comedy revue. She writes and performs frequently with The British Players, which is dedicated to preserving such unique British theater traditions as panto and Victorian music hall.

A native of Easthampton, Massachusetts, Missi once called Paris home and is fluent in French. State-side, she was named an honorary Texan in 1997 while serving former Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX).