SPN welcomes new Director of Development Communications
State Policy Network is pleased to welcome Ladan Nowrasteh to the team as Director of Development Communications. Ladan comes to SPN from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University where she was the Director of Marketing and served many other communications roles for seven years. Before getting into the think tank world, she worked at several publications and broadcast outlets like NBC, USA Today, and Radio Free Europe. At SPN, her focus is to take her communications and journalism training to help tell the story of SPN and the Network’s impact to its supporters.
To help you get to know her, we asked Ladan to share what prompted her to join SPN and work with our supporters to increase freedom and opportunity in America.
I come from a mixed household where my mother was born and raised in the Midwest and my father came from Iran as a high-skilled immigrant in the 1970s. Although they came from completely different cultures, they held many of the same values that still resonate with me today: hard work, accountability, dedication to family, and the importance of thinking for yourself. They taught me that I could achieve anything as long as I held these values.
However, even in America, I see examples every day of (well-intentioned) but poorly devised policies that hurt people’s abilities to achieve their version of the American Dream. These policies affect everything from individuals’ ability to start a business to owning their own home to having hope that their children will be able to have better lives than themselves.
I have always admired SPN’s state-based focus and truly believe states are the best laboratories for successful nation-wide policies. Even at national think tanks, I noticed a lot of the change was happening “on the ground” in states because, as the old cliché goes, Washington is in constant gridlock. Several of my former colleagues who I greatly admire came to work at SPN, and it felt right to leave a job I loved for seven years to go somewhere I knew also had strong leadership, many familiar faces, and a mission I supported.
“It feels good to fight for your vision of what you think will truly improve lives even if it’s not what’s fashionable or popular.”
If you had one piece of advice for others considering a career like yours, what would it be?
Write a lot—if you stop writing after a long period of time, it’s hard to get going again. It’s very hard to find good writers in my experience, so keep it up!
When you’re not improving the world at work, where are you likely to be found?
I have two kids under the age of three (one baby and one toddler), so my time is spent with my husband and rambunctious little boys exploring the Northern Virginia area and having playdates with friends. While I love the work I do, being a mom is the most fulfilling job.
