Kristy McKearn
Vice President of Government Relations
Amerigroup
Kristy McKearn currently serves as the Vice President of Government Relations for Amerigroup Louisiana. Previous to Amerigroup, Kristy was appointed by Governor Bobby Jindal to serve as the Undersecretary for Louisiana Economic Development. In this role, she was responsible for agency operations including finance, policy and planning, business incentives, human resources, information technology, and legislative affairs.
Prior to her service with LED, Kristy served as the Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber where she was responsible for leading all aspects of BRAC’s governmental advocacy efforts at the Federal, State, and Local levels of government. In addition, she was responsible for FuturePAC, BRAC’s political action committee.
Previous to this employment, she was a Public Policy Advisor for the law firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, and formerly Vice President of Business Operations for the New Orleans Hornets/NBA. Following hurricane Katrina, Kristy helped the team make a successful transition to Oklahoma City while maintaining proper ties to accomplish the team’s eventual return to New Orleans.
Kristy holds a BA in Political Science (magna cum laude) from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, a Masters in Public Administration and has completed all coursework and written exams for her Doctorate in political science at LSU.
Kristy is published in her academic discipline coauthoring several articles including“Ranking Political Science Departments: Further Reflections on Publication, Halo, and Faculty Size Effects”. Kristy was invited to participate in a program at the Kennedy School of Government where she joined senior Harvard faculty in discussions about strategies and tactics for enhancing one’s influence and authority in organizational and political contexts
In addition to her full-time job, Kristy also serves as adjunct faculty for the department of Political Science at LSU.