What You Don't Know About Dawn Sweeney

Title: President/CEO, National Restaurant Association.
Association mission and members: Represents the $665B restaurant industry, from quick service to fine dining to school cafeterias and hotel restaurants. Members are 600,000 of one million US restaurants.
Make-up of board and how often it meets: 95 board members, organized into committees around issues like food and healthy living, jobs and careers, profitability and entrepreneurship, and sustainability. They meet three times a year for two days.
Public policy focus: Implementation of ACA and how full-time employees are defined; immigration reform and the ability to attract and retain a strong and current workforce; tax reform; and support of menu labeling with nutrition facts.
Recent public policy win: Delaying implementation of the employer mandate and being part of a coalition that defeated a proposal in NYC to ban sale of certain drinks larger than 18 oz.

Hometown: Westbrook, Maine.
Current home: Oakton, Va.
Why DC: Passion for politics.
Why a career in associations: Right out of college in the early '80s had two job offers: legislative correspondent on the Hill or working in a trade association. Chose International Dairy Foods Association as an educational coordinator.
School: Colby College for undergrad; GWU for grad.
First job: Newspaper deliverer.
Job in another life: Foreign service officer.
Person (living or dead) to meet: Maternal grandmother.
Daily habit: Reflecting at the end of each day on what I could have done better.
Bucket list: Live abroad for a year.
Family: Married 20 years (husband is a psychotherapist specializing in marriage counseling) and terrific teenage son
Hobbies: Community service, biking, reading, and learning new things
Startling fact: Don't like to cook. (Perfect for someone in the restaurant business.)