Leadership • Senior Staff • Senior Advisors • Board of Advisors

Senior Staff: Elizabeth Pressnell Hessenius

Elizabeth (Sissy) Pressnell Hessenius
Vice President of Government Affairs

Sissy Pressnell is Vice President for Government Affairs for American Defense International, Inc. She was born and raised in Harlan, Kentucky and graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in political science.

Sissy came to Washington, DC in the fall of 1992 and was hired by the office of Congressman Harold Rogers (R-KY), where she became a legislative assistant. Within a year she was performing the duties of legislative director, responsible for all legislative and Appropriations Committee activities in agriculture, education, energy, health care, housing, labor, interior, trade, and welfare. Besides her legislative duties, she drafted, developed and executed special appropriations projects as well as prepared floor statements and committee testimony.

In the summer of 1996 Sissy was asked to join the Tobacco Institute (TI) as their Director of Issues Management. At TI, Sissy was part of a working group who created the national We Card youth sales prevention program. When the program was instituted, Sissy remained in charge of the daily management, and development of program activities. During this time she also coordinated grassroots initiatives in support of tobacco industry positions.

Sissy left TI in 1997 to join Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corporation (B&W) as their Senior Manager of Government Affairs. It was a position she held until the merger between B&W and RJ Reynolds Tobacco (RJR) in the fall of 2004. During her final three years with B&W Sissy was the company's only corporate lobbyist in Washington. She had wide discretion in formulating and implementing company strategies on matters pending before Congress on issues as diverse as international trade, regulatory proposals and tobacco grower concerns. She also was responsible for day to day operations of B&W's PAC. In the fall of 2004, Sissy was asked to join the new company formed by the merger of B&W and RJR as a Manager of Key Issues. Despite being relocated to RJR's corporate headquarters in North Carolina, Sissy stayed involved in important issues in Congress.

Sissy Pressnell is married to Dr. Chuck Hessenius, and they have two daughters: Katie, age 5; and Allison, age 2.