Camila Knowles joined Cornerstone's Atlanta office in October 2017 and now serves as principal and director. She comes to the firm after serving in Governor Nathan Deal's cabinet as Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) since January 2015. At DCA, she led a staff of over 400 and allocated over $1 billion annually in state and federal dollars as she and her team fulfilled DCA's mission of encouraging community development, providing local government assistance, financing Georgia's economic development, and providing affordable housing.

Prior to her service in the Deal Administration, she was chief of staff to U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss. She began her career with Senator Chambliss in 2003 as one of the Senator's designees on the Senate Judiciary Committee focusing on immigration law and policy. After serving as a legislative assistant and chief counsel for the Senator in Washington, D.C., she moved to Atlanta in 2009 as state director, and was named chief of staff in 2013.

While on Senator Chambliss' staff, Camila worked on a host of legislative issues, including energy policy, comprehensive immigration reform, judicial nominations, Georgia's tri-state water wars, and the deepening of the Savannah Harbor. She also worked on appropriations bills providing critical federal funding to numerous Georgia projects.

Camila began her career in Washington as a legislative aide to U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas. She holds an A.B. in History from Harvard, from which she graduated with cum laude distinction, and a law degree from Georgetown University. She is a member of the State Bar of North Carolina.

Camila is a current trustee for Leadership Georgia and serves on the boards of directors for the Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission, Camp Sunshine, the Georgia 4-H Foundation, Georgia Cities Solutions, and the Chambliss Leadership Forum. She is an alumni interviewer for Harvard and for the Chambliss Fellows program, which sends University of Georgia students to Washington, DC for a semester. She resides in Atlanta with her husband Sean and their four children. Camila is an active member of Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, where she serves on the church's Staff-Parish Relations Committee and teaches kindergarten Sunday School with her husband.