TEAM / Wanda Crotwell
Wanda Connelly Crotwell is a government relations professional with more than 35 years of experience in the fields of government, communications, and lobbying. Prior to joining The Southern Group in 2019, she was a lobbyist and strategic advisor at Mike Daniel and Associates for seven years.
Before joining MD&A, she was assistant to the Commissioner for External Affairs at the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, where she served under four separate commissioners and five different governors. As part of her responsibilities, she managed governmental affairs, constituent services, annual budget requests, accountability reports, internal communications, and media relations. She also served as policy advisor and strategic counsel to the Commissioner.
In addition to her 18 years of experience in South Carolina state government, she has worked in the field of communications for both non-profit and for-profit private sector companies in South Carolina and Georgia.
Her areas of expertise include lobbying, legislative relations, inter-governmental relations, strategic and political communication planning and implementation, regulatory development and consultation, speech writing, management, business communications, public speaking, and a first-hand understanding of state government. She also possesses a keen understanding of the legislative process and the skills necessary to navigate that process for multiple issues at once. She is well-known in the legislative arena for her ability to take complex issues and communicate those issues in understandable terms to achieve desired results.
As a lobbyist in South Carolina, Wanda has successfully worked on legislation to: establish the state’s emergency health powers in the wake of 9/11; include financial literacy classes as a requirement for high school graduation; allow for the use of competency based education in public schools; establish a Pay for Success model of funding for state projects; establish the state’s first child abuse response protocol; expand the Nurse Practice Act to remove supervision requirements and geographical limitations for advance practice nurses; raise the age for juvenile offenders; repeal the requirement of shackling juvenile offenders in court; allow for expungement of certain offenses under specific conditions; establish permitting processes for surface water withdrawals; protect the state’s onsite wastewater evaluation and permitting process; establish regulations for open burning and protection of air quality; expand multiple health care practice acts to include interstate licensure compacts for those professions; require telecommunication CPR training for all 911 operators; remove the requirement of a referral for physical therapy services; and protect Certificate of Need for home health agencies. She has also successfully lobbied for millions of dollars for various entities throughout the state as part of the annual appropriations process.
Wanda is also a much-requested guest lecturer for university classes, a keynote speaker for conferences, and is skilled in providing legislative and grassroots training for her clients. Her vast experience enables her to represent an extensive list of regulated entities and healthcare provider groups from across the state with a level of first-hand understanding that is unmatched in the world of private sector lobbying.
Wanda is a cum laude graduate of Clemson University, and holds a BA in English and communications, with a concentration in political science. She has just completed her 28th year as a registered lobbyist in the state of South Carolina. She and her husband are the proud parents of two adult children, both of whom call South Carolina home.
