About Us
OUR TEAM
Katie O’Brien
Katie has provided public policy and community relations consulting in the Dallas area since 2016. She helps clients navigate the legislative processes at the local and state level, and provides services like policy oversight, board management, fund development, and community relations. Her recent client work ranges from green space initiatives to support for transformative ordinance changes to big picture policy and strategy. As a Dallas native, she’s committed to making her hometown a more livable and dynamic community year after year.
Prior to returning to Dallas, Katie worked in the Texas Senate for more than six years, serving as a Senior Policy Analyst for Senator Kirk Watson from Austin. She developed strong relationships and policy depth in issues such as public and higher education, state finance, insurance, redistricting, and pensions. She is knowledgeable about public school finance and the Texas budget. Katie represented the Senator with constituents, advocates, legislative offices, and state agency staff.
Katie’s a graduate of Boston College and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. She’s very involved in her kids’ schools and their church community in Dallas. Katie also participated in several leadership programs, including Dallas’ Mayor’s Star Council, Leadership Austin, and Americorps. As a young woman, Katie was a member of the City of Dallas Youth Commission.
Katie, her husband, and their three children enjoy living in east Dallas where you can find them at soccer games, White Rock Lake, or a local taco spot.
Trisha Windham
Trisha Windham has worked as a public policy and campaign consultant since 2014, specializing in state and local advocacy, campaign management, and public education issues.
Previously, Trisha served as the Managing Director of Public Policy for the Dallas Regional Chamber. In that position, she advocated on behalf of the Dallas business community with regard to economic policies, transportation, water, healthcare, and education at both the local and state level. She also served as the founding Executive Director of EducateDallas, the Chamber’s political action committee, focusing on candidate identification and development, school board accountability, community engagement, and political fundraising for school board elections.
Trisha is a graduate of Leadership DISD and Leadership Plano, as well as an active volunteer for other community organizations. Trisha has previously served as a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters, was a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), and a member of The University of Montana’s Center for Civic Engagement aid trip to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Additionally, she has served as a volunteer for the Violence Free Crisis Line, mentoring children from abusive homes, and is an avid supporter of Locks of Love.
Trisha earned her undergraduate degree in Political Science – Public Policy from The University of Montana, and her masters in Political Science – Legislative Studies from The University of Texas at Dallas. She and her husband, Ryan, moved to Dallas from Montana in 2008. They currently live in Oak Cliff with their three young children.
Gunnar Rawlings
Gunnar brings years of experience in community engagement and public advocacy to help clients navigate complex community and governmental issues and opportunities at the local level. Prior to joining TPA, he served as Vice President of the Corporate Work Study Program & Strategic Initiatives at Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep located in the heart of Pleasant Grove. From 2013-2017, Gunnar held various roles at Cristo Rey Dallas during its start-up phase, guiding the initial feasibility and business planning for the school. He worked closely with the founding board and Cristo Rey Network to ensure Cristo Rey Dallas met the high standards set for its opening.
After that, Gunnar worked in the commercial construction space for almost six years leading business development and brand establishment efforts for two separate, large general contractors, Suffolk and DPR Construction. He helped Suffolk establish a North Texas office in 2017 and left to join DPR in early 2020, helping guide their business planning through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gunnar currently serves on the board of Jubilee Park and Community Center as well as on the Texas advisory board for the Trust for Public Land. Previously, he worked with neighborhood advocates to get Crockett Dog Park built in his family’s neighborhood. In 2023, he was appointed to the Workforce Solutions of Greater Dallas board by the Mayor of Dallas where he continues to serve on the outreach committee. He also served as the City of Dallas District 2 appointee on the Community Bond Task Force for the $1.1 Billion 2024 bond election.
Gunnar holds a Bachelor of Art in English from Boston College and a Master of Education from The University of Notre Dame. He lives with his wife, Gaby, and daughter in Old East Dallas.
Julie Harner
Julie Harner is a former corporate executive who led commercial strategy, global engagement, communications and marketing initiatives at a global airline in Dallas for 15 years. Julie’s area of expertise is using marketing, communications, and media to enable business outcomes and goals. She is comfortable working with both senior executives and board members, as well as implementation teams and vendors.
Julie has managed large internal teams and vendors responsible for designing and executing marketing and communications strategies for multi-million dollar initiatives. She led the holistic approach for a transformational change to corporate and agency relationships using varied tactics including emails to millions of customers across multiple audience segments, paid and earned media, newsletters, websites, event collateral and internal sales team member training. While in a commercial strategy role, she ran specialty offerings generating $100M+ revenue and drove initiatives involving lead generation and acquisition strategy, awareness campaigns, profitability analysis and improvement projects.
In her consulting role, Julie provides end-to-end communication and marketing strategy and implementation that are laser-focused on the mission for a variety of clients. Her specialty includes identifying and developing key messaging, media strategy and spokesperson training, content creation and direction, as well as global communications platform integration and management.
Julie attended Penn State University, where she earned a degree in Industrial Engineering and the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin for her Masters in Business Administration degree. She has a love of travel and has visited over 50 countries. In her spare time, Julie is involved with her children’s school and enjoys playing tennis and the piano. She and her husband, Chris, live in Dallas with their two children and dog.