Donna Brazile

Donna Brazile has been a political operative since the age of nine, when she worked to elect a City Council candidate in her home town of New Orleans who had promised to build a playground in her neighborhood. The candidate won, the swing set was installed, and a lifelong passion for political progress was ignited. Since then, Ms. Brazile worked on every presidential campaign from 1976 through 2000, culminating as Al Gore's campaign manager and becoming the first African-American ever to manage a presidential race. Apart from campaign work, she has been active at the highest levels of Democratic party leadership, previously serving as Vice Chair for Civic Engagement and Voter Participation at the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and chair of the DNC's Voting Rights Institute. Ms. Brazile has received frequent recognition for her work throughout her public life. In August 2009, O, The Oprah Magazine chose Ms. Brazile as one of its 20 "remarkable visionaries" for the magazine's first-ever O Power List. In addition, she was named among the 100 Most Powerful Women by Washingtonian magazine, Top 50 Women in America by Essence magazine, and received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's highest award for political achievement.