Donna Brazile, who just celebrated her 20th year as an adjunct professor, says, “I find teaching to be one of the most important things I do every week with my life.”
“We all know that Hillary is in the process of writing her memoirs of her years in the State Department, but that has not stopped the news media from trying to figure out what else she might be up to,” Brazile quips with a cynical smirk. “So, of course, every week we get treated to what I call ‘Clinton du jour.’”
The students laugh in unison.
This up-and-close encounter with one of the nation’s most prominent political strategists and television pundits is why they’ve enrolled in her “Women in American Politics” class in the first place.
Since 2002, Brazile has taught the popular course, where it is cross-listed with the Women’s and Gender Studies program and the Department of Government, at the Jesuit institution.
For Brazile, who managed Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign and has served as an advisor to countless other congressional races across the country, teaching isn’t simply about telling old war stories from the campaign trail (although she has plenty to share with her students, many of whom want to run for political office someday).
On this particular day, she’s giving her 29 students a brief overview of how women in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have accrued political power by positioning themselves on key congressional committees.
