Nate Herman oversees AAFA’s government relations department, managing the association’s lobbying, policy, and regulatory affairs activities. Nate leads AAFA’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, formulating and implementing CSR policy and representing AAFA and the industry on CSR issues before governments, NGOs, and other key stakeholders. Nate also leads the association’s work on sustainability, transportation, logistics, and customs issues. In addition, Nate develops all apparel and footwear industry data and statistics as AAFA's resident economist. Prior to joining AAFA, Nate worked for six years at the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration assisting U.S. firms in entering the global market. Nate spent the last two years as the Department's industry analyst for the footwear and travel goods industries. Nate received a Masters of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh in 1994 and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Economics from the University of Delaware in 1992.




Elise Shibles
Partner
Sandler, Travis, & Rosenberg
Elise is a Member of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A., resident in the San Francisco office. She advises and counsels clients on trade agreement and preference program requirements for a variety of different types of goods under U.S. and non-U.S. trade programs including NAFTA, QIZ, ASEAN-China and EU-Vietnam, among others. She also has extensive expertise in all aspects of textile and apparel trade and policy including classification, origin, marking, drafting and reviewing proposed legislation, and strategy for trade negotiations.  She has represented the interests of numerous international companies in free trade negotiations, including rules of origin, customs procedures and market access. Ms. Shibles advises clients on “Made in USA” marking and advertising standards under both federal and California law.  She also counsels clients on compliance efforts with regard to forced labor and on traceability of resources and production in response to origin verifications. Prior to joining the Firm, Ms. Shibles served for over 11 years with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, formerly the U.S. Customs Service. As a specialist in textile and apparel policy, she was part of the U.S. Government negotiating team and participated actively in the negotiations of numerous free trade agreements including those with CAFTA-DR, Korea, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Oman and Bahrain. She drafted various provisions and helped develop legislation and regulations to implement FTAs and preference programs, trained foreign industry and government representatives on rules of origin and assisted with compliance efforts such as foreign factory inspections, classification and valuation reviews and trade data analysis. Ms. Shibles holds a J.D. from the University of California at Davis and a B.S. in textile and apparel production, merchandising and design from Iowa State University. She is a member of the California Bar Association.