Ihna Varner

About Ihna Varner

Ihna (Mangundayao) Varner joined Bracewell\'s Policy Resolution Group in 2022 to help lead the research, monitoring, policy analysis, and reporting efforts on various client issues including infrastructure, transportation, emerging technologies, healthcare, trade, and various energy and environmental issues – energy transition, plastics recycling, chemicals regulations, sustainability, energy storage, permitting, and carbon capture and sequestration. In this role, Ihna regularly interfaces with Members of Congress and their staff as well as federal officials, honing her skills in advocacy, coalition-building, communications, and policy analyses. She also manages relationships with dozens of clients that range from private companies, trade organizations, and non-profits. Her advocacy work has included supporting and preparing clients for testimonies before Congressional committees, facilitating meetings with high-level Administration officials, organizing briefings and other public events with Members of Congress, securing appropriations funding, and promoting bipartisan legislation. Formerly a congressional legislative staffer, Ihna has extensive knowledge of the federal budget process and demonstrated experience in drafting legislation and conducting oversight of federal agencies and the private sector. While in the Senate, she worked with several committees including Budget, HELP, EPW, and Finance - and their House counterparts. As a Budget Committee staffer, she led the Minority’s work with Senate Floor Staff and Senate Democratic Leadership teams, collaborating with these staff to promote the caucus’s legislative priorities while simultaneously ensuring that legislation abided by federal budgetary rules and procedures.Ihna’s previous work experience includes economic and labor policy analysis for a renowned think tank, nonprofit management and fundraising consulting, academic research, and internships with energy and international development organizations. At Yale, Ihna was an Energy Studies Scholar under the then-called Yale Climate and Energy Institute. She also medaled as a coxswain for the Yale Men’s Lightweight Rowing Team, recording wins against Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Georgetown, UPenn, MIT, and others throughout her athletic career. Ihna was selected to be Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Young Scholar in 2008 and later a College Scholar.

Experience

1. Principal

   Bracewell Llp

   Mar 2026 — Present · Washington, DC, US

Education

• Harvard University

  Political Science and Government

• Cornell University

  Summer College, Environmental Studies

  2012 — 2012

• The Island School

  Semester Abroad, Environmental Science

  2011 — 2011

• Phillips Exeter Academy

  Highest Honors

• Yale University

  Political Science

• The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

  Summer School, Development Economics and International Development

  2015 — 2015