Beyond the Meeting: Turning Legislative Relationships into Appropriations Success

Description
Many advocates make the mistake of only reaching out when they need money. This session will teach you the art of "year-round advocacy". We will break down the exact steps to identify key legislative champions, engage effectively with influential staff members, and provide high-impact data that makes your funding needs clear and undeniable. Join us to learn how to transition from a constituent with a request to a trusted partner in the legislative process.  

Objectives:

• Recognize the steps to identifying key legislative staffers and officials

• Focus on building legislative relationships

• Discover the power of high-impact data that clarifies your mission and the need

Bios:

William York, President & CEO

William York is the President & CEO of 211 San Diego/San Diego Health Connect. With his diverse expertise in business management, care coordination service, and information exchanges, coupled with his spirit of collaboration and partnership, William leads the only combined 211, Community Information Exchange (CIE) and Health Information Exchange systems in the nation.

Joining 211 San Diego in 2007, William has dedicated his focus and leadership to developing strong teams to manage the many operational hubs of 211 San Diego as well as the region’s Community Information Exchange. Overseeing 300 staff, William guides and directs multiple teams to meet the organization’s mission and goals. Under William’s leadership and vision, these teams built and launched the region’s first-ever Community Information Exchange to bridge health and social services to address social determinants of health and improve upstream impacts such as health outcomes, equity, and quality of life through a collaborative and multi-dimensional platform that provides case planning and facilitated connection to services for providers and clients, ongoing resource navigation, and data and outcomes.

William’s stewardship of the Community Information Exchange has gained national recognition for social and technological innovation, including establishing cross-sector collaboration, community partnership, engagement and interoperability among human, health, and social service providers. Along with similar efforts to share CIE-related insights, William was appointed to the 2021-22 California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHSA) Stakeholder Advisory Group to provide a CIE lens as they developed the state’s first-ever CalHHS Data Exchange Framework. In part due to his statewide leadership, and in alignment with the future vision of California’s data exchange framework, the Board of Directors named William as the President & CEO giving executive oversight of the local HIE, known as San Diego Health Connect, in early 2024.

Prior to his current role, William served as 211 San Diego’s Executive Vice President. William is a current board member of the California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits), a statewide membership organization that brings nonprofits together to advocate for the communities they serve, as well as California Association of Health Information Exchange (CAHIE) where he serves as Treasurer. CAHIE is a non-profit organization that promotes and facilitates the secure sharing of health information across California. William is a past member of the board of directors of Oasis, a nonprofit focused on the aging population, the San Diego Veterans Coalition, and Zero8Hundred. He is also a past member of the Truman National Security Project Advisory Board. He is a member of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce LEAD Influence Class of 2026. William was recognized in 2015 as the San Diego Veteran of the Year by then California State Assembly member Toni Atkins and by the San Diego Veterans Museum and Memorial Center.

Meg Storer, Chief of Staff

As Chief of Staff for 211 San Diego, Meg Storer is a distinguished leader with over two decades of expertise in government affairs, strategic communications, and nonprofit management. Joining 211 San Diego in 2003 as the organization’s second employee, Meg was a primary architect of the agency’s foundation. Most notably, she was solely responsible for the successful CPUC application that secured the official 2-1-1 dialing code designation for the San Diego region, a milestone that fundamentally defined the organization’s trajectory. Her commitment to excellence in service standards is further evidenced by her role in securing the agency’s prestigious Inform USA accreditation awards in both 2007 and 2025, marking nearly two decades of maintained gold-standard operations.

 Today, Meg serves as the agency’s keystone, providing high-level guidance to the Executive Team and Senior Staff while overseeing the External Affairs division. In this role, she manages government relations, public relations, and philanthropy to ensure the agency’s social entrepreneurship vision is realized. Her sophisticated navigation of the political landscape has secured critical partnerships with municipalities and first responders, positioning 211 as a vital component of the region’s disaster response and military/veteran support systems.

 Meg’s influence extends to the national and state levels through her extensive board service. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Inform USA and has previously held leadership roles as the Vice-Chair of the California Alliance of Information and Referral Systems and as a member of the 211 California Board of Directors, where she championed legislation for statewide coverage. Her commitment to the San Diego community is further evidenced by her board tenures with Zero8Hundred, the San Diego Veterans Coalition, Champions for Health, and the Economic Development Corporation Foundation.

A recognized authority in the nonprofit sector, Meg’s achievements include being named the San Diego Business Journal’s Business Woman of the Year in 2020 and a San Diego Metro Magazine “40 Under 40” honoree in 2016. Her dedication to mentorship and leadership was further celebrated by her induction into the Annapolis High School Wall of Fame. She also received the “Woman of the Year for California District 76” award by California Assemblymember Darshana Patel.

Meg holds a Master of Arts in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from the University of San Diego and a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Shippensburg University. A graduate of the North County Leadership and Fieldstone Emerging Leaders programs, she is also a member of the LEAD San Diego Advance class of 2025. Meg resides in North County San Diego with her two sons, where she continues to drive the mission of 211 San Diego as a national model for community resource navigation.