Activist Leaving Town, Keeping Up the Fight

She succeeds Jim Dempsey , who has moved to San Francisco, where he'll serve as policy director for CDT. Ari Schwartz moves up as deputy director. Harris's shop has worked for the AOL Foundation, the American Library Association, Intel Inc., the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Internet Alliance, among others.

Adding a Health Expert

With CEOs increasingly concerned about rising health care costs, the Business Roundtable, one of the premier business groups in town, has brought on Maria Ghazal as director of public policy for its health and retirement task force, making her its top lobbyist on health and retirement issues.

Ghazal worked for the American Benefits Council, Verizon and Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. She was an aide to the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.).

In and About Town

Philip J. Hays has signed with Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. He previously worked for Rep. Ron Lewis (R-Ky.), including time as staff liaison to the House Ways and Means Committee's panels on health and oversight.

Leon Buck, a senior aide to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.), has joined the Jefferson Consulting Group.

Brent Jaquet, a senior aide to Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) during Young's stint as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, has joined Cavarocchi Ruscio Dennis Associates.

The American Psychiatric Association has signed on Helen Clare Jenkins, who is working the House side, and R. Thomas Leibfried , who starts Oct. 24 and will lobby the Senate. Jenkins most recently worked for Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Leibfried worked for the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare.

Brad Bennett joins Hill & Knowlton's public affairs practice this week from the Direct Impact Co., a grass-roots communications firm. Earlier, Bennett was director of public affairs for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) and communications director for Rep. Lamar S. Smith (R-Tex.).