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Born: I was born December 29 in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Education: I graduated from the University of Florida where I earned a Bachelor of Business Administration, with minors in Economics and Mass Communications.
Family: My husband Phil Harrison and I have been married for more than 11 years, and we have two adult stepsons—Daniel and Matthew. We also have a senior cat, Lily, who is the head of the household.
When and how did you start working in the recycling industry? I joined the former RockTenn Co. in April 2013 as its first state government affairs manager. I’d previously built and managed a lobbying and consulting business in Atlanta and wanted to expand into a multistate corporate role. Early in my career at RockTenn, I was quickly engaged by the recycling leadership team to support their business at the state and local levels. I brought this expertise and my relationships with public officials to IP in January 2023.
What was it about the industry that inspired you to build a career in it? What has really inspired me to build a career in this industry is the people. Every day is different, and I get to work with manufacturers, legislators, community leaders, recycling professionals and more who are all incredibly passionate about what they do. I enjoy connecting people to help solve complex issues while strengthening paper’s position in our circular economy.
What have been your most rewarding professional achievements? Personal achievements? At work, I’ve been involved in delicate and challenging situations that have required strategic coordination and discretion to communicate company decisions. While challenging, it’s rewarding to navigate those circumstances and deliver the best possible outcomes. Secondly, I’ve worked on economic development negotiations for over a billion dollars of manufacturing investment that have resulted in considerable incentives. In a role where it’s sometimes hard to quantify the value of influencing legislative or regulatory outcomes—helping to kill an especially burdensome EPR bill, for example—it is gratifying to measure these types of “wins.”
Personally, I’m most proud of the career I’ve built. It wasn’t a straight line, and there isn’t a roadmap for it, especially as a woman in these male-dominated spaces. If you’d told me in college that I’d eventually become a manufacturing lobbyist, I wouldn’t have believed you. This path has opened doors and helped me prepare to take on future responsibilities in my family’s tree-farm business in South Georgia, for which I am grateful.
What are you passionate about? I’m excited to tell stories, and what really energizes me is connecting people to our industry’s story. Paper and recycling success is a great story to tell, one everyone can feel confident and credible explaining. I get to connect public officials to our facilities, the jobs we provide, investments and sustainability efforts behind it. I'm also a bit of a nerd about data, and it’s incredible how much data IP manages. Strong, credible data creates the narratives that help us win in public policy arenas.
Tell us something about you that would surprise people. I’m at least a fifth-generation tree farmer, which means I’ve been connected to this industry long before I worked in it professionally. Our farm has been in my mother’s family since the original Georgia land grants in the early 1800s. It’s currently mostly a planted pine plantation, with some row crop acreage that we now lease out to a neighbor who farms cotton, soybeans and peanuts. From pine seedlings to OCC bales, I’ve been exposed to nearly every stage of the fiber supply chain in my life, and that has given me a deep appreciation for the people and markets that make it work.
If you could improve anything about yourself, what would it be? If I could improve one thing about myself, it would be my ability to remember names. I can recall a conversation from 10 years ago, where I was standing and what the person had for dinner the night before—but somehow their name can disappear from my brain almost immediately. For a person who makes a living networking and relationship-building, it’s humbling.
What do you like to do in your free time? I love to travel both domestically and internationally, and I’m grateful to work in a role where I get to travel for work. Growing up at the beach, I enjoy anything on, in or underwater. Recently, I renewed my SCUBA training and have logged several great dives in the last couple of years. Our house doesn’t have much “free time,” and we spend spare time between the family’s lake house and my family’s farm in South Georgia. We’re always repairing, bushhogging, cleaning, building or renovating something.
You’re now PSI’s Government Relations Chair. How and when did that involvement come about? And what motivated you to become a PSI volunteer leader? My involvement with PSI developed naturally through my broader engagement in industry advocacy. I’d previously taken on leadership roles within ISRI, now ReMA, through the Government Relations Committee and service on the Board of Directors as a director-at-large. PSI complements this work because it allows me to focus on packaging policy issues that are increasingly important to both the recycling and paper industries. At IP, our philosophy is that if we’re going to participate in trade association activities, we seek active leadership roles.
What benefits have you received from your PSI involvement—either as a leader or in general? PSI strengthens my national perspective on packaging policy and industry issues beyond my Southeast region. The relationships and insights I've gained through PSI have helped me better understand emerging trends and bring these back to IP’s government relations and recycling organizations.
What are the major challenges facing your company and the overall recycling industry today? Two challenges stand out to me. First is the growing patchwork of state packaging and recycling policies. Varying requirements across states creates complexity for our customers, and a key part of our role is helping them navigate this new landscape while advocating for practical, effective solutions.
Second is the need to continuously reinvest capital in a highly capital-intensive industry that competes in a global marketplace. IP continues to invest in both existing facilities and strategic growth projects, positioning the company to remain competitive, meet evolving customer needs and create long-term value.
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