Dan Baskerville is a founding partner at Dogwood Public Affairs, and comes to Dogwood directly from Dentons US LLP (formerly McKenna Long & Aldridge) where he specialized in state and local government affairs for over 20 years. Dan has extensive experience representing a wide variety of clients before the Georgia General Assembly and state agencies, including in the economic development, education, healthcare, financial, and transportation sectors. He is a graduate of Binghamton University and USC Price School of Public Policy.

With over twenty years working in public policy, Elmer Stancil is a founding partner at Dogwood Public Affairs. Elmer has a proven track record of assisting clients by developing advocacy strategy as well as legislative execution at the federal, state, and local levels. Elmer began his career at the State of Georgia where he spent over a decade working to craft policy to attract and grow jobs and investment in Georgia.  After moving to private practice, Elmer has worked at all levels of government serving clients in healthcare, hospitality, procurement, tax policy, transportation, and regulation. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia.

An attorney with 15 years of experience, Robert Sills is a founding partner at Dogwood Public Affairs and has served as Policy Director and Counsel to the Georgia House Minority Caucus, a Public Policy attorney with Dentons US LLP where he represented both Fortune 100 clients and state-based non-profits, and in-house counsel at Amazon.com, Inc. Prior to founding Dogwood Public Affairs, he most recently served as national director of state and local government affairs for a large national non-profit organization. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University and Emory University School of Law.

Calvin Smyre of Columbus, Georgia is a Senior Advisor at Dogwood Public Affairs. He is a former Executive Vice President of Synovus Bank and Dean Emeritus of the Georgia House of Representatives, having served in the Georgia General Assembly for 48 years. During his tenure of service, Dean Smyre served as a Governor’s Floor Leader, Rules Committee Chairman, University System of Georgia Committee Chairman and Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. He has served as a Delegate to every Democratic National Convention since 1980 and is nationally renowned and respected for his commitment to bipartisan collaboration on Georgia’s most pressing issues. He is President Emeritus of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, based in Washington, DC. He is a graduate of Fort Valley State University and holds Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters Degree from Morehouse School of Medicine and Columbus State University.