Defense & Congressional Advisory · Washington, D.C.

Strategy for navigating the Pentagon – Capitol Hill dynamic.

Sanderling Strategies helps organizations navigate the defense enterprise and the congressional process with the judgment that only comes from decades inside both. Clear counsel. No noise.

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Services

Counsel at the intersection of policy, budget, and mission.

Congressional Engagement

Strategy for engaging the authorization and appropriations process — from building the case for a program to preparing leaders for testimony and member-level engagement.

Defense Enterprise Navigation

Practical guidance on how decisions actually move through the Department of Defense: who owns the issue, where the leverage points are, and how to time your approach.

Executive & Legislative Advisory

Senior-level counsel for executives, boards, and government-affairs teams — legislative forecasting, message discipline, and honest assessments of what is and isn't achievable.

Leadership

Kathryn Yurkanin

Kathryn Yurkanin founded Sanderling Strategies after a career spent at the seam between the Department of Defense and the United States Congress — first in uniform, then in the most senior ranks of the civil service.

A retired Army Officer and retired member of the Senior Executive Service, she served as the US Army's Principal Deputy Chief of Legislative Liaison in the Pentagon, where she guided the Department's engagement with Capitol Hill through authorization cycles, appropriations fights, hearings, and the daily work of keeping two branches of government talking to each other.

She brings that perspective to clients directly: no layers, no hand-offs, and no advice she hasn't tested against how the building — and the Hill — actually work.

United States Army, Retired

Commissioned officer with a career of leadership in demanding assignments.

Senior Executive Service, Retired

Principal Deputy Chief of Legislative Liaison for the Army in the Pentagon, leading legislative engagement at the Department's most senior levels.

Why "Sanderling"

The bird that works the tide line.

The sanderling is a small shorebird that lives at the water's edge — quick, precise, and constantly reading the shifting line between land and sea. Working the seam between the Pentagon and Congress: always at the edge where things change, always a step ahead of the wave.

Contact

Let's talk about the ground ahead.

Engagements begin with a conversation. Reach out to discuss your objectives and whether Sanderling Strategies is the right fit.

Email the Firm info@sanderlingstrategies.com 571.235.5813