It’s been quite a year for former Senate staffer Amber Marchand, who left her longtime professional life on Capitol Hill and a little later welcomed her third child to the world.  

Marchand, a former staffer for the Republican National Committee, National Republican Senatorial Campaign and House Homeland Security Committee, moved to the Senate in 2011, where she worked for Missouri Republican Roy Blunt from the beginning of the 113th Congress until April, when she went to work at Hamilton Place Strategies as managing director. She says she will miss working with Blunt, as well as “seeing so many friends, reporters, and colleagues simply walking through the halls.” But, she said she “was grateful to learn from the best in the Senate.”  

Her fondest memories from her time with Blunt’s office are the trips back to Missouri. “Those trips were good opportunities to gain perspective on policy discussions outside the Beltway,” she said.  

Marchand is not the only one who misses being in the Capitol every day. She joked that her children miss riding the Senate trains during recess to visit “Mr. Stew” — Don Stewart, longtime aide for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.  

Marchand and her husband, Sterling, and their two children, Foster, 3, and Quinn, 1, recently had another change come their way — Marchand had a baby boy, Ford, last month and is currently on maternity leave.  

There is one thing Marchand doesn’t miss about working on the Hill. “I don’t miss waiting in line to go through security every morning on the way to work,” she said.  

She chose the career move to Hamilton Place Strategies because they are “great fit culturally and a new challenge professionally.”  

Since joining the firm, she has worked on the Business Roundtable-led Trade Benefits America Coalition, a 270-member group that supports trade legislation recently signed into law by President Barack Obama. She has also worked on the Exporters for Ex-Im Coalition to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, the charter for which expired at the end of last month.  

Marchand is planning on returning from maternity leave by the end of the summer.

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