Gaby Gilbeau Joins RV Industry Association As Director Of State Affairs

The RV Industry Association welcomes Gaby Gilbeau as its new Director of State Affairs. The RV Industry Association’s Government Affairs staff are industry experts for our members, state legislators, regulators, and RV industry stakeholders. Their federal and state affairs teams champion the RV industry on Capitol Hill and closely follow relevant legislation and policies.

Gaby, who graduated from Penn State Law, has a decade of experience in government affairs. “I did a year-long fellowship in litigation with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation before going back up to Penn State to work on biofuel law and policy, as well as teach agricultural law and policy at the university,” she says. “I went from there to the Herbert W. Hoover Foundation and ran their Ohio program for a brief period of time before I joined Nuveen Green Capital for the last nearly four years, which is a subsidiary of Nuveen— the $1.4 trillion asset manager for the Teacher Insurance and Annuity Association of America – College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA). I've been all over the world, but mostly focusing on state government affairs and policy, working the gamut from regulatory to nonprofits and foundations to trade associations and academia, as well as my last stint in a Fortune 100.”

For Gaby, the RV Industry Association was an ideal match. “As a lifelong RVer, when I saw the job posting from the RV Industry Association, it was really a natural fit for me,” she recalls. “I was looking for my next move and where I could be more effective with a broader portfolio of work. This perfectly aligned with my personal and professional interests.”

In Gaby’s role as the Director of State Affairs, she leads the state government relations team at the RV Industry Association. “We track bills in all 50 states and determine which ones have importance to the association and its members,” she explains. “If they're impactful to us, we either support them or oppose them. That can involve writing letters of support or opposition, preparing testimony, going to testify in person, working with contract lobbyists all around the country, and working with coalition groups of other interested stakeholders, including RV dealers or the automotive industry to ensure we have the strongest voice possible for our association and its members on these bills.”

“Oftentimes, we're hands-on— writing letters of opposition or support, providing testimony, or even rewriting bill text,” she adds. “That's where my background as a lawyer really comes in handy. I still maintain my law license in Pennsylvania, and in my previous roles, I have written legislation in nearly half of all US states, so I feel like I've written enough bills all around the country now that I can work on a piece of bill text quickly and return it to the legislature to make effective change. It’s a really interesting and varied position.”

The variety is one of the aspects Gaby finds most rewarding about her role. “In Government Affairs, every day is completely unique and unpredictable,” she reflects. “We typically work from January to June quite heavily, because that's when the states are in legislative session. Then, from June until December, we’re preparing for the next session the following year. I love it—every time session starts, I’m excited to see what comes down the pike. When you wake up in the morning, you never know whether a new, important bill is going to be filed, or there'll be movement on a bill that requires you to get on a plane to go testify in a different state.”

Additionally, Gaby’s personal connection to the RV industry gives her work an even deeper, more profound meaning. “I've been a lifelong RVer. Even from the time I was a very small child, my family had travel trailers that we would take to the Jersey Shore every summer. We would stay in them from basically the day school got out until right before we went back,” she says. “Camping at the beach, going to the lake, and visiting campgrounds were part of my fundamental memories of childhood.”

“As I grew up, we became more involved in dog shows, such as the Westminster Dog Show. I compete all around the country with my dogs on a national level,” Gaby notes. “My family and I have shown dogs for about 25 years now, and, in that time, we've had two Class A motorhomes, now we have a Ford Transit van— converted for the dogs— that we use to tow a small Winnebago trailer. So, I've had RVs my whole life, and they've always been part of my very existence.”