Christianna Barnhart serves as the Senior Vice President, Government Affairs at the ESA. In her role, Barnhart is responsible for driving the trade association’s advocacy efforts on federal and state legislative and regulatory matters that are vital to the video game industry.
Barnhart brings more than 15 years of technology and telecommunications experience in both the public and private sectors to the ESA.
Prior to joining the ESA, Barnhart was senior counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and led the committee’s work on technology and telecommunications policy. In this role, her team advised the chair of the committee on telecommunications regulation, media policy, broadband deployment, content moderation, wireless connectivity and artificial intelligence.
Before her role on the committee, Barnhart was the senior technology and telecommunications counsel for the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet, where she managed the ranking member’s technology and telecommunications portfolio.
Earlier in her career, Barnhart led telecommunications and technology regulatory policy as vice president of regulatory affairs at Charter Communications and held several leadership roles at the Federal Communications Commission. Barnhart began her career practicing intellectual property law in Washington, D.C.
Barnhart holds a bachelor’s degree from James Madison University and received her J.D. and M.B.A. from American University.
