37: Moms in Government Relations + Public Affairs, Part II

Parents At Work

In this episode of Parents at Work, Lori Mihalich-Levin and Jason Levin interview Jewelyn Cosgrove, a government affairs professional in Washington D.C. Jewelyn currently serves Melwood, a 501(c)(3) organization serving people with disabilities, as the Vice President of government relations, bringing with her 15 years of experience in public policy, lobbying, and advocacy. Outside of work, Jewelyn is passionate about elevating the needs of mothers and families and serves as the treasurer of Raising Our Future Political Action Committee, a PAC that’s aimed at electing congressional candidates that prioritize the needs of families.

Jewelyn’s work has been focused on promoting and empowering parents to negotiate and advocate for their needs. She lives in Asheville, Virginia with her husband Greg, two children, and their two amazing cats. She is an alumna of the Mindful Return program and continues to serve the program as a coach to new mums. Jewelyn shares how Lori’s program, Mindful Return, helped her with her career and motherhood and highlights the fact that being a working mom, especially with more than one kid, means more work and a bigger family that you'll want to keep happy and strong.

Organizational skills become more important than ever when you mix in growing your career, and Jewelyn has learned to manage “balancing” her time on a weekly basis, instead of getting obsessed about day-to-day work-life balance. You’ll want to join this lively conversation to learn more about life as a parent who works on Capitol Hill, the challenges of working in government affairs and parenting at the same time, navigating challenging conversations with your kids, and most importantly, how to figure out your own effective way of successfully parenting your kids while growing your career.

Show Highlights

• Parenting her 5 and 2-year-old children (03:08)
• Finding Mindful Return and how she was able to recreate and reimagine herself and her career (03:43)
• Thriving at balancing things over a week instead of being too focused on work-life balance on a daily basis (05:13)
• What it’s like being a parent in a government relations role (07:46)
• Explaining her workdays to her kids in an age-appropriate manner (10:34)
• How she applies her skill in managing disagreements on the hill into managing disagreements with her kids (12:26)
• The most fulfilling thing about her work with Raising Our Future (15:54)
• Having a wonderful boss who supported her in her needs both as a parent and career woman (18:12)
• Support that she expects parents to get from their workplaces in this day and age (21:02)
• Working in the environment of uncertainty and new ways of doing things brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic (25:09)
• Remembering who “The Enemy” is when the going gets tough (29:32)
• How Freemies changed her working parenting life (32:32)

Links and Resources

• Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans by Michaeleen Doucleff
• What's a Freemie? A genius invention for working parents
• Jason's Website
• Jason on Linkedin
• Lori's Website
• Lori on Linkedin