Dustin McDonald - Partner/Government Relations Lead

Dustin is a government relations & public affairs expert with over 20 years of experience in leadership roles with national associations and private sector businesses.  As the firm’s lead on government relations services, Dustin works with elected leaders & regulators at all levels of government to address the needs of businesses and associations where their professional & policy priorities with government intersect.  Dustin’s deep background representing diverse clients with unique needs enables Square Root Group to offer creative approaches to clients across direct lobbying, digital & social media engagement, and grass roots/grass tops campaigns. 

Most recently Dustin led federal & state policy for Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the largest association of patients & physicians promoting access to medical cannabis, and served as Vice Chair of the Cannabis Chamber of Commerce.  Prior to his role with ASA Dustin built & ran an international, federal, state & local government relations team for Weedmaps, a large cannabis technology company.  Before joining Weedmaps, Dustin served as the Director of the Government Finance Officers Association’s (GFOA) Federal Liaison Center, where he led advocacy on municipal finance issues for state, county & city government associations. 

Dustin’s 10 years of work before joining GFOA were dedicated to providing federal advocacy services to clients across the country as their representative in D.C.  In these roles, Dustin led successful advocacy campaigns on a diverse group of issues, including municipal finance & tax reform, multi-modal transportation & related infrastructure, housing & economic development, water & wastewater infrastructure, telecommunications reform, public safety and manufacturing.  

Haley Detwiler-McDonald - Partner/Communications Lead

Haley is a communications and crisis management expert with over 20 years’ experience building successful communications, crisis management & congressional affairs strategies. Haley leads the development & deployment of communications services for clients. 

Prior to founding Square Root Group, LLC Haley built and led a public relations department for an international aerospace corporation. Haley drove national brand recognition through website & social media development, coalition building and engagement with local, national & foreign press.

Before relocating to Southern California, Haley lived in Washington, D.C. where she led communications efforts in the Pentagon for the office of the Provost Marshal General of the Army (OPMG). In this role Haley coordinated with Military, Federal, State, local and international law enforcement agencies. Her communications efforts were crafted to reach across 40,000 Military Police officers in the active force and built to support the investigative, policing, biometric, anti-terrorism and corrections operations of the Army and the Department of Defense (DoD) . Her strategies influenced messaging & policy across the U.S. Army and the Department of Defense. 

Earlier in her career, Haley spent three years providing direct federal advocacy services to local governments & agencies as the Director of Legislative Affairs for a boutique lobbying firm in D.C.