Sandy Liddy Bourne currently serves as vice president for policy and strategy for The Heartland Institute, a national nonprofit research organization based in Chicago.
Previously she served as Director of the Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Task Force for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and advisor to the ALEC Homeland Security Working Group. She has developed two policy projects, the Energy Sustainability Project and the Environmental Health Initiative. Both of these policy projects seek to educate state lawmakers from the free market environmental perspective on issues specific to energy and the environment. Prior to joining ALEC, Bourne served as the Deputy Director of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation under Governor George Allen. In addition to her management responsibilities for the department, she acted as the agency liaison with other state agencies on issues related to natural resources and health. Bourne was elected to the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District in 1993 and served one term before joining the Department. Prior to her political service, Bourne worked as an independent consultant for W.C. Duke Associates and the Empowerment Network in Virginia. Bourne served as an officer in the Army Nurse Corps, USAR from 1986 to 2003. Her clinical experience in nursing includes Mount Vernon Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia from 1989 to 1992; and as a staff nurse at the New England Medical Center and case manager at the Greenery Rehabilitation Center in Boston, Massachusetts from 1982 to 1987. Bourne was appointed by Governor Allen to the State Board of Nursing and chaired the Blue Ribbon Commission on School Health for the Commonwealth of Virginia. She just completed a term as a member of the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services appointed by Gov. Jim Gilmore. She was recently appointed to the Virginia Land Conservation Board by Speaker William Howell. Bourne is an active member of her community having served as Chairman of the Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce. She has a MSN from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.