OUR TEAM
Kyle McGowan
Founding Partner
Kyle McGowan has over a decade of federal service in both the legislative and executive branch. He was most recently the Chief of Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In that role, he oversaw the day-to-day operations and served as the senior advisor to the CDC Director on all matters before the agency. He provided strategic planning and guidance for the Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the EVALI vaping epidemic as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. Kyle also worked as the senior liaison to the White House, U.S. Dep. of Health and Human Service, World Health Organization, and the U.S. Agency for International Development on all public health matters and issues of national security.
Prior to joining CDC, Kyle served as the Director of External Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In that capacity, he worked in the immediate office of the Secretary and across all HHS staff and operating divisions to listen to and coordinate with external groups. He worked closely with the Secretary’s public affairs team to amplify and spread HHS’s priorities directly to external groups and partners and worked directly on many of the department’s priority issues including the opioids epidemic, drug pricing, and health reform.
Before joining the Department of Health and Human Services, Kyle served as the Deputy Chief of Staff to Congressman Tom Price, M.D. In that role, he helped the Congressman develop a comprehensive strategy to promote priorities to constituents, local business leaders, and other elected officials.
Kyle has worked for multiple members of Congress and has experience running several congressional and statewide campaigns. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs.
Amanda Campbell
Founding Partner
Amanda Campbell has extensive experience in healthcare and Federal budget policy through diverse roles across the Federal government, in both Congress and the Executive branch. In Congress, she served Georgians in both the Congressional office and as professional staff for the House Budget Committee under Congressman Tom Price, M.D., where she drafted and passed legislation, developed key policy initiatives, supported committee hearings, and testified before Congress.
In 2017, Amanda joined the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where she served on the transition and beachhead teams before working as a Policy Advisor in the Immediate Office of the Secretary. Her work focused on health care reform, budget, and the ReImagine HHS initiative aimed at enhancing departmental efficiency. Amanda later joined the HHS budget office, managing relations with the Appropriations Committees during the development of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018.
Prior to co-founding Ascendant Strategic Partners, Amanda served as Deputy Chief of Staff for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In that role, she supported the Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) initiative, which secured new Congressional funding as a Presidential initiative. She also provided support for responses such as COVID-19, engaging directly with HHS and the White House on critical policy efforts. Throughout her time at CDC, she advised the CDC Director and Chief of Staff on priorities including CDC’s strategic framework, budget, and congressional relations.
Amanda earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia and her master’s from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Randy Pate
Strategic Advisor
Randy Pate is former Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) at the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Pate brings over two decades of public and private sector healthcare policy and regulatory experience to provide strategic guidance to clients seeking to navigate the State and Federal landscape. In 2021, Pate launched Randolph Pate Advisors LLC, a management and strategic consulting firm providing leadership in the healthcare sector to health insurers, healthcare providers, technology companies, and State governments and now also collaborates with Ascendant Strategic Partners as a Strategic Advisor.
In his most recent role at CMS as Director of CCIIO, Pate led the turnaround of the Health Insurance Exchanges within CMS and was instrumental in several major health policy initiatives. During Pate’s tenure at CCIIO, premiums for benchmark plans on HealthCare.gov dropped for the first time, decreasing for three straight years. Competition on the Exchanges also increased, as the percentage of counties with one insurer offering coverage dropped from 52% in 2018 to only 9% in 2021. Pate also led the drafting of major regulations such as the 2017 Market Stabilization Rule, and played a key role in shaping federal policy on the HHS Risk Adjustment Program, Section 1332 State Innovation Waivers, Transparency in Coverage (Price Transparency), and Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRAs). He also spearheaded the development of Enhanced Direct Enrollment (EDE) at CMS, a private-sector technology pathway that enrolled over 1.3 million consumers into individual market coverage for 2021.
Earlier in his career, Pate served in a number of roles on Capitol HIll, including Public Health Counsel for the House Energy and Commerce Committee and later as Health Counsel for Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) during the debate over passage of the Affordable Care Act. Pate also worked at the Heritage Foundation and served as a Senior Advisor at the Department of Health and Human Services during the George W. Bush Administration. Pate also helped to launch the MITRE Corporation’s policy work with CMS and for six years worked as Vice President of Public Policy for Health Care Service Corporation, the largest customer-owned health insurance company in the country.
Pate holds undergraduate and law degrees from The University of Alabama and a Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. He enjoys writing and performing music on the guitar, reading, hiking, and is an avid fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Andrew Vogt
Strategic Advisor
Andrew Vogt is a policy professional with more than seven years of experience lobbying and working in the Senate. His time on Capitol Hill includes more than four years as a Health Professional Staff member for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). In that role he planned more than 20 hearings and drafted or negotiated approximately 50 health policy provisions that were signed into law with bipartisan support.
Among the significant laws Andrew worked on are policies related to maternal health, childhood cancer, substance use disorders, public health data modernization, the healthcare workforce, and community health centers. His proudest achievement was leading the Senate’s work on the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act (P.L. 115-271), the 2018 “landmark” legislation to confront the opioid and substance use disorder crisis.
Prior to his work for the Senate HELP Committee, Andrew spent nearly three years working for former Senator Mark Kirk. In that capacity, he advanced the Senator’s “stroke agenda,” a series of bills introduced after Senator Kirk’s 2012 stroke to improve access to, and quality of, rehabilitation services in the United States. Two of those bills were signed into law as part of the 21st Century Cures Act.
Andrew earned a B.A. in political science from Marquette University, and he currently lives in Seattle with his fiancée. He founded Andrew Vogt Strategies LLC in April 2021 to help businesses and nonprofit organizations more effectively navigate Congress and the federal government. Andrew joined the Ascendant Strategic Partners team as a Strategic Advisor in June 2021 and has been working to provide clients with key insight into Congressional affairs, federal policy, and the grantmaking landscape.
