Shannon Royce brings a wealth of experience to her role as Director of the Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (the HHS Partnership Center). The HHS Partnership Center was formed in 2001, under the George W. Bush administration, to ensure that faith partners and nonprofits faced no barriers and were engaged as full partners in serving the poor and helping the vulnerable. Royce's professional background includes both government and private sector experience. In government, she worked for over seven years on Capitol Hill, including serving as Counsel to Sen. Chuck Grassley (now Chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee). In the private sector, Royce worked in several faith-based nonprofit organizations. Early on, she led the D.C. office of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, a group focused on issues such as sex trafficking, global hunger and protecting religious liberty. Most recently, she served as Chief of Staff and Chief Operating Officer at the Family Research Council (FRC), managing day-to-day operations for a team of 80 in fulfilling the FRC mission of promoting “a culture in which all human life is valued, families flourish and religious liberty thrives.” She received her Juris Doctor from the George Washington University School of Law.