Life Highlights

  • Founder, Joinery Partners — public affairs, coalition building, and policy strategy

  • Chair, NBCSL Corporate Roundtable

  • Adjunct Instructor, Grassroots Advocacy — University of Richmond

  • Founder & Board President, LWC Foundation

  • 15+ years across government, Fortune 500 corporate affairs, and nonprofit leadership

  • Former Senior Policy Advisor, Florida Cabinet

  • Youngest woman elected to office in Jacksonville, Florida history

  • First Lady, Cornerstone Baptist Church | Founder, Cornerstone Cares Food Pantry & Basic Needs Bank

Chelsi Bennett Biography

Chelsi Henry Bennett, J.D. is a strategist, public affairs executive, writer, first-time mom, and pastor's wife whose work sits at the intersection of policy, entrepreneurship, and faith.

She is the founder of Joinery Partners LLC, a public affairs firm that builds the community infrastructure that makes issue campaigns win — the programs, coalitions, and relationships that turn a policy ask into something legislators can act on. She supports organizations build coalitions, shape policy, and move agendas at the state and local level. She also chairs the Corporate Roundtable of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, convening corporate leaders and state legislators around shared policy priorities, and teaches Grassroots Advocacy at the University of Richmond, where she trains students and professionals to translate community ideas into legislative outcomes.

Mrs. Bennett brings more than fifteen years of cross-sector experience spanning government, Fortune 500 corporate affairs, and nonprofit leadership. She currently supports a nonpartisan nonprofit working to expand entrepreneurial opportunity, directing mayoral engagement across the country. Her corporate career includes government relations and public policy roles at Block (Square, Cash App, and Afterpay) and StubHub, where she advanced policy agendas on small business access to capital, financial inclusion, and the digital economy. She served the City of Richmond as Senior Advisor to the Chief Administrative Officer and the Mayor. Earlier in her career, she worked for a global company with offices in more than seventy countries, building internal communications platforms, managing diversity committees, and executing events across India, Israel, North America, and the United Kingdom.

Her public service began in 2010, when she was elected Commissioner of Soil and Water Conservation District Group 5 in Jacksonville, Florida — the youngest woman elected in the city's history. She served three years on a platform of bringing executive experience to natural resource conservation. She was subsequently appointed by a Florida Cabinet member to serve as Senior Policy Advisor in Florida's Capitol, with a portfolio covering environmental, military, and veterans' affairs. There she led the launch of Operation Dispatch, a statewide initiative granting military-trained firefighters credit toward Florida firefighter certification, and served as Senior Advisor on Turkey Point 6 and 7, managing communications among constituents, agencies, lobbyists, and a dozen opposing parties. While in Tallahassee, she provided pro bono legal counsel to low-income families in matters of wills and estates, guardianship, and contractual disputes.

Mrs. Bennett was recognized by CNN in 2014 as one of ten "Up-and-Comers to Watch" and has written for Ebony magazine. She has been described as a dynamic and motivating speaker and has addressed audiences nationwide on advocacy, entrepreneurship, and faith.

Alongside her professional work, Mrs. Bennett serves as First Lady of Cornerstone Baptist Church in North Chesterfield, Virginia, where she leads the women's ministry and founded the Cornerstone Cares Client Choice Food Pantry and Basic Needs Bank, which serves families across the surrounding community with dignity and choice at its center. She is Founder and Board President of the LWC Foundation, a nonprofit providing baby essentials to parents in need in the Central Virgina area. She writes at chelsibennett.com, where her work threads scripture through the ordinary work of building — leadership, motherhood, and the questions that come with both.

Mrs. Bennett is originally from Jacksonville, Florida. She holds a J.D. and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2014. She graduated from the University of North Florida in 2009 with a B.B.A. in Business Management and a minor in Mass Communication.

Mrs. Bennett and her husband, Rev. Jonathan, live in the Richmond area with their son, Tristan.