In the Spring of 2019 the CCDWLI invited Eleanor Clift and Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan to welcome guests to share how the U.S. Captial has changed over the two years since the Trump administration took office. From the very beginning, protestors filled the streets, while splashy headlines warned of the chaos unfolding in Washington leaving many people questioning where we stand. The CCDWLI 2019 Spring Gala: State of the Nation aimed to give Chester County an inside perspective on our nation’s present state.
Eleanor Clift is a columnist for the Daily Beast, an online publication where she writes about politics and culture. She was formerly with Newsweek, where she covered the White House and was a key member of the magazine’s election team. When Newsweek merged with the Daily Beast under the editorial direction of the legendary Tina Brown, Clift wrote for both publications.
Her cover story about the television show, Mad Men, won acclaim for capturing the era when women were relegated to the secretarial pool. When the Daily Beast sold Newsweek in 2013, Clift stayed with the Beast, betting on its digital future as opposed to the shrinking world of print journalism.
Clift is perhaps best known as a panelist on the syndicated talk show, “The McLaughlin Group,” which returned in January 2018 after an eighteen-month hiatus following the death of host and creator, John McLaughlin. Clift also offers insights each Friday on The Michelangelo Signorile Show on Sirius XM Satellite Radio, and has appeared as herself in several movies, including “Dave,” “Independence Day,” “Murder at 1600,” and the CBS show, “Murphy Brown.”
She has authored or co-authored several books, including, “Selecting a President,” “Founding Sisters and the 19th Amendment,” “Two Weeks of Life: A Memoir of Love, Death and Politics,” “Madam President: Blazing the Leadership Trail,” and “War Without Bloodshed: The Art of Politics.”
Clift lives in Washington, D.C., where she is on the advisory council of the International Women’s Media Foundation, the boards of the American News Women’s Club and RespectAbility, an advocacy group for people with disabilities, and the Board of Governors of the National Hospice Foundation.
U.S. Representative Chrissy Houlahan is an Air Force veteran, engineer, entrepreneur, and educator who is continuing her career of service as the first woman ever to represent Pennsylvania’s 6th District in Congress.
Chrissy is the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors who came to America with nothing. She grew up in a military family; her parents met when her father and grandfather flew P3s in the same Navy squadron. She earned her engineering degree from Stanford with an ROTC scholarship that launched her service in the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserves and later earned her M.S. in Technology and Policy from MIT.
Chrissy has helped lead several thriving Southeastern Pennsylvania companies including AND1, a basketball apparel company headquartered in Paoli, and B Lab, the organization that launched the B Corporation movement. She went on to serve in Teach for America as a chemistry teacher at Simon Gratz High School in North Philadelphia, and then led and scaled a non-profit helping thousands of underserved students all across America build their literacy skills.
These experiences helped shape her political vision of a great nation united by common values that leaves no one behind. She is committed to fighting for access to quality, affordable healthcare, common sense gun safety, government accountability, and transparency, and working to build a strong, stable economy with good jobs and good benefits for everyone.
Chrissy is a leader driven by a spirit of service. She is a mom, a longtime resident of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and a first-time congressional representative heading to Washington to solve real problems for the people and communities of Pennsylvania.
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