Part 1 traced the money: three companies, two small DC firms, and a federal lobbying relationship concentrated enough that a handful of named individuals carry almost all of it. This piece is about those individuals — seven people, their actual career histories, and a real pattern of overlap that the firm-level view could only describe in the abstract.
One note on scope before the roster: Part 1 also surfaced five more names tied to Compass Pathways' 2025 federal debut (Todd Strategy Group's team plus a self-filed registrant). This piece sticks to the original Conafay Group / KPM Group DC cluster rather than expanding to cover them — a deliberate choice to keep this piece focused, not an oversight.
A data limitation worth stating up front
LD-2 federal lobbying disclosures report compensation at the client-to-firm level, not per individual lobbyist. Nothing in the public federal record says "Darin Gardner personally earned $X from the Definium account this year." What can actually be reported about pay is:
- What the firm was paid by a given client (already in Part 1's tables)
- Each individual's title and seniority at their firm — a rough proxy for standing, not a salary
- Occasionally, a firm-wide employee count that lets you sanity-check per-person averages, but never an actual reported individual figure
"How much they made" is better framed as "what their firm was paid for the accounts they're named on" — a different, more honest claim than the headline question implies.
The roster
| Name | Firm | Accounts named on | Revolving-door status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Darin Gardner | Conafay Group | Psychedelic Medicine Coalition, Definium/Mind Medicine | Confirmed — Hill staff, then Roche, then K Street |
| Josh Narrow | Conafay Group | Psychedelic Medicine Coalition, Definium/Mind Medicine | Senate staff background, unconfirmed office |
| Julie P. Pawelczyk | Conafay Group | Definium/Mind Medicine (2024) | OpenSecrets tags "Ex-gov" — not corroborated by her public bio |
| Branden Cordeiro | KPM Group DC | Definium/Mind Medicine (2024) | No confirmed government position |
| Jake Jackson | KPM Group DC | Atai Life Sciences (2022), Definium/Mind Medicine (2024) | No confirmed government position; possible later move in-house |
| Katie Landes | KPM Group DC | Atai Life Sciences (2022) | No confirmed government position |
| Alex Root | KPM Group DC → in-house at Compass Pathways | Atai Life Sciences (2022) | OpenSecrets tags "Ex-gov" — not corroborated by what's publicly findable |
The backgrounds
Darin Gardner (Conafay Group)
VP at Conafay Group since February 2020 — and unlike Pawelczyk and Root below, this is a confirmed, well-documented revolving-door career, not just an OpenSecrets tag. Per LegiStorm: staff for Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-AR) from 2000, including a stint on the Senate HELP Committee; Legislative Director for Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), 2002–2005; Assistant Director then Director of Federal Government Affairs at Roche, 2005–2007; five years as a partner at a DC lobbying and law firm; back to Granger's office as Chief of Staff in 2015; VP at Conafay since 2020. A path through two Hill offices and a top pharmaceutical company before landing at the firm now representing both the Psychedelic Medicine Coalition and Definium/Mind Medicine — the clearest, and now a named and verifiable, example of the trade-association/company overlap this piece is built around.
Josh Narrow (Conafay Group)
Promoted to VP at Conafay Group as of June 2026, Senior Director before that, with eight-plus years at the firm advising life-science and biodefense clients on federal engagement and non-dilutive funding strategy. Before Conafay: staff in a U.S. senator's office supporting the Senate Aging Committee — the specific senator isn't confirmed in what's publicly searchable — and a communications strategist running earned-media campaigns for national advocacy organizations. Graduated cum laude from George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. Same dual-roster overlap as Gardner: Psychedelic Medicine Coalition and Definium/Mind Medicine, both through Conafay.
Julie P. Pawelczyk (Conafay Group)
VP at Conafay Group since 2016. Prior roles, per LegiStorm, LinkedIn, and ZoomInfo: Principal at Federal Strategy Consulting; Associate at Capitol Associates, doing health-policy advocacy; Director of Recruiting at Kinzie Search Partners. Georgetown University. None of this is a confirmed federal government or congressional position — the visible career is consulting-firm and search-firm work, not a Hill staffer or executive-branch role. OpenSecrets tags her "Ex-gov" regardless. That's worth stating plainly rather than letting the tag stand unchallenged: either the government position exists somewhere behind a paywall this research didn't reach, or the tag doesn't hold up against her actual public bio.
Branden Cordeiro (KPM Group DC)
Public Affairs Manager at KPM Group DC since January 2024, per LegiStorm. Before that: Government Affairs Associate at Capitol Associates — the same firm Pawelczyk passed through earlier in her career, a coincidence rather than a documented connection between the two of them. BA from Boston University. No confirmed government or Hill position.
Jake Jackson (KPM Group DC)
Director, Public Affairs at KPM Group DC since June 2022, per LegiStorm, promoted internally from Senior Manager of Public Affairs. Before KPM: Manager of Government Affairs at the National Board for Certified Counselors, and a Legislative Assistant role before that — the specific office isn't confirmed in what's publicly available. One detail worth flagging rather than asserting outright: a ZoomInfo listing shows him currently as Director, Federal Legislative Affairs at Moffitt Cancer Center, which would mean he's since left KPM for an in-house role — the same kind of firm-to-company move Alex Root made into Compass Pathways, below. The timing of Jackson's apparent move hasn't been independently confirmed against his named-lobbyist years on the Atai (2022) and Definium/Mind Medicine (2024) rosters, so treat the Moffitt title as current-as-of-this-research rather than a dated transition. Those two roster years are, on their own, the clearest example of this piece's second overlap pattern: the same person named on two competitors' accounts.
Katie Landes (KPM Group DC)
Senior Director, Strategy & Execution at KPM Group DC. A thin public record beyond the title — no confirmed prior government or Hill position turned up in what's searchable without a LegiStorm Pro subscription.
Alex Root (KPM Group DC → Compass Pathways)
Listed as Director of Operations at KPM Group DC during the Atai account in 2022. As of December 2025, LegiStorm shows him as Senior Manager, Government Affairs at Compass Pathways — in-house, not at a lobbying firm. LegiStorm's free tier doesn't disclose his employment history before KPM, so no government position is confirmed despite the "Ex-gov" tag OpenSecrets applies to him. What is confirmed is the move itself: from an outside firm lobbying Atai's account to an in-house government-affairs role at Compass Pathways, one of Atai's direct competitors in the clinical pipeline.
Three overlap patterns, now with names attached
Part 1 described these at the firm and account level. Here they are at the level that actually matters — specific people, specific employers:
- Trade association and member company, same firm, same people. Gardner and Narrow are both named on the Psychedelic Medicine Coalition's roster and Definium/Mind Medicine's roster, simultaneously, both through Conafay Group.
- Competitor and competitor, same firm, same person. Jackson is named on both the Atai Life Sciences (2022) and Definium/Mind Medicine (2024) rosters, two companies that compete directly in clinical development, both through KPM Group DC.
- Outside lobbyist to in-house at a competitor. Root moved from lobbying Atai's account at KPM Group DC to an in-house government-affairs role at Compass Pathways — one company's outside lobbyist becoming a direct rival's employee.
None of these are violations of anything; lobbying disclosure rules don't prohibit this kind of movement, and it is common practice across K Street generally. The point is narrower: the number of people actually doing psychedelics-specific federal lobbying work is small enough that the same names keep reappearing on opposite sides of accounts that look, on paper, like separate relationships.
This is business and policy reporting, not legal advice. Backgrounds are drawn from LegiStorm, LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, and company staff pages; where a detail couldn't be confirmed — an office, a tag, a transition date — we've said so rather than filled the gap with assumption.
Sources
- LegiStorm — biography pages for Darin Gardner, Josh Narrow, Julie P. Pawelczyk, Branden Cordeiro, Jake Jackson, Alexander P. Root (free tier; Root's pre-KPM employment history is paywalled)
- LinkedIn and ZoomInfo — career history cross-checks for all seven individuals
- The Conafay Group and KPM Group DC staff pages
- OpenSecrets — lobbyist rosters cited in Part 1 (Definium/Mind Medicine 2024, Atai Life Sciences 2022)
- Altitude: journal/34 — Only 3 of 10 Psychedelic Companies Lobby Washington
- Altitude: journal/33 — 2026 Legislative Session Scored