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Meet Amy Eichhorst, director of Illinois Connection
 Amy Eichhorst was recently named by the University of Illinois Alumni
Association as the new director of Illinois Connection, a grassroots advocacy
initiative that encourages support of the University’s mission and promotes
a greater understanding of the impact the University has on the state, nation
and world. In this position, Amy will expand the existing statewide network of
alumni ambassadors, and create a federal, legislative grassroots advocacy program.
Amy relocated from the Washington, D.C., area, where she gained
extensive experience in grassroots legislative advocacy, federal lobbying, politics
and elections.
She began her career as a legislative aide for a U.S. congressman from Florida,
advising him on a variety of issues, including education policy. In subsequent
years Amy worked for U.S. and state Senate campaigns in northern California,
and worked as a state Senate aide.
Amy was a lobbyist for the National Association of Realtors for six years,
where she worked with federal representatives and senators from the Midwest – including
Illinois – to advocate on behalf of housing issues. Most recently, she
was manager of the National Association of Realtors’ Housing Opportunity
Program, a grassroots housing advocacy program.
Throughout her career, Amy has lived by the motto that “all politics
is local,” and she has used constituent, grassroots participation as a
way to more effectively influence policy, politics and public perception.
Amy lives in Urbana with her husband, Jim, who is the fifth generation of his
family to own and operate a corn and soybean farm in Champaign County.
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