Mike Brownfield, assistant director of strategic communications for The Heritage Foundation, serves as editor of The Foundry, the think tank’s rapid-response policy blog, and The Morning Bell, one of Washington’s most widely read and influential morning e-newsletters.

A journalist and attorney by training, Brownfield joined Heritage in October 2009 as senior digital communications associate. In that role, he developed and executed Heritage’s social media strategy, including audience engagement on Facebook and Twitter. In May 2011, he was promoted to his current position.

Brownfield came to Heritage after serving as director of public affairs for Michigan’s attorney general. In the 2008 election cycle, he designed and implemented an innovative online strategy as campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg. Before returning to his home state of Michigan to run that campaign, he practiced law in the Chicago area.

Brownfield received his doctorate of law from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where he directed the Honors Appellate Advocacy Moot Court program and won awards for his performance in constitutional and administrative law.

He studied communications, new media and political science at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in journalism. While in college, he hosted a public affairs radio show, reported for The Ann Arbor News and The Daily Northwestern, and interned in Heritage’s online communications division.

Brownfield, who grew up in suburban Detroit, resides in Arlington, Va.