Andrea Densham, the Director of Regional Government Affairs at Alliance for the Great Lakes, is an expert in Great Lakes policy, government affairs, and the politics of achieving sustainable policy change. Andrea Densham helps shape and advance the Alliance’s nonpartisan, evidence-based policy solutions, with a particular focus on driving changes at the state and regional levels. Andrea leads the Alliance’s government affairs work from strategy to implementation.
Andrea is a government affairs executive delivering innovative, data-driven, tailored solutions in ever-evolving environments. A passionate leader, Andrea has spent decades fostering alliances among diverse, at times divergent, interests, including civic leaders, government officials, agency leadership, scientific experts, and impacted frontline communities to create durable policy solutions.
Over her career, she has designed and established dynamic programs, funding, regulations, and research, including those at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as advancing public health initiatives within the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Andrea had the honor to work with colleagues to pass historic legislation, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the establishment of the Minority AIDS Initiative, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
A Michigan native, Densham traces her love of the lakes to her childhood, when she learned firsthand how grassroots advocates, working shoulder to shoulder, can protect the lakes while stopping industrial pollution in nearby Detroit neighborhoods. She is dedicated to empowering individuals to advance Alliance’s tremendous legacy and to building a new generation of leaders to protect, restore, and sustain our region’s water and communities, while rewilding our coastal habitats for the aquatic wildlife that call our Great Lakes home.