Donna Brazile

Donna Brazile is a veteran political strategist, Senior Advisor at Purple Strategies, New York Times bestselling author, Chair of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, and sought-after Emmy and Peabody Award-winning media contributor to such outlets as ABC News, USA Today and TheGrio.

She became the first African American woman to serve as the manager of a major party presidential campaign, running the campaign of former Vice President Al Gore. She previously served as interim Chair of the Democratic National Committee and of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute. She is a current member of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee.

She is author of the 2004 best-selling memoir "Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics" and the 2017 New York Times Bestseller "Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-Ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump In The White House." She is a co-author of "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics," which won the 2019 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Nonfiction. Brazile is a contributor to the recently published "400 Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019."

She serves as an adjunct professor in the Women and Gender Studies Department at Georgetown University and served as the King Endowed Chair in Public Policy at Howard University and as a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School. She has lectured at nearly 250 colleges and universities on diversity, equity and inclusion; women in leadership; and restoring civility in American politics.

She is the proud recipient of more than ten honorary doctorate degrees from major colleges and universities, including her alma mater Louisiana State University. In October 2017, Brazile was the recipient of the W.E.B Du Bois Medal, Harvard’s highest honor in African American studies. Brazile was the recipient of a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Daytime Program, "Good Morning America" (2016-2017) in connection with her work with ABC and she was a member of the Peabody Award-winning “Best Political Team on Television” on CNN during the 2008 election cycle.

She moonlights as an actress and is especially honored to have made three cameo appearances on CBS’s "The Good Wife," and two cameo appearances on Netflix’s series "House of Cards." She also appeared as herself on BET's "Being Mary Jane." Most recently she played herself in the Zack Snyder film Army of the Dead. Ask her and she’ll tell you that acting, after all, is the key to success in politics.