Mackenzi Matthews graduated with her BA in political science and public policy in 2021. Since then, she obtained an MA in political science and government from American University. She spent 3 years at the National Governors Association as a policy coordinator and legislative associate. In September, she started working at the US House of Representatives as a Legislative Assistant. Her legislative portfolio includes: agriculture, arts, childcare, cryptocurrency, education, financial services, housing, small business, tax.

Before coming to Washington, Mackenzi served as a Dunn Fellow on Governor Pritzker's legislative team in Springfield. The fellowship gave her great hands-on experience in a governor's office, which led her to being hired by NGA after she moved to DC.

During her time at NGA, Mackenzi started with the Center for Best Practices for a few months (~9 months) working on Children and Families and Postsecondary Education policy before switching to the Government Relations team. With GR, Mackenzi started by working on education, workforce, housing, criminal justice, and housing, with her portfolio expanding to half of the federal government by the time she left. With GR, Mackenzi got to give federal updates to governor staff, predominantly their state federal affairs representatives, and go to the Hill and Administration to relay governor federal priorities. One of the highlights of Mackenzi’s role was crafting NGA's Farm Bill priorities, which led her to getting deeper into the ag space. Mackenzi believes this helped her land her current role as an LA with Congresswoman Budzinski. Mackenzi covers a wide variety of topics for Congresswoman Budzinski, but one of the big pieces that Mackenzi covers is her Housing and Agriculture Committee work.