Web Extras for fall 2009 Quarterly: "Inside the Real West Wing"
More About Mona K. Sutphen ’89
From Working Mother‘s “real mom stories”: The White House deputy chief of staff for policy and mom of two shares how she balances life in and beyond the West Wing.
Another World: Policy Chief Enters a New Phase
From The Washington Post: With her sharp analytical skills and duty to conscience, Sutphen made a name for herself even before she started advising the president as the White House deputy chief of staff for policy.
Mona Sutphen ’89 discusses role as Deputy Chief of Staff
From the 4/2/09 Mount Holyoke News: Sutphen has surprising advice for Mount Holyoke students about to join today’s workforce: “Don’t worry about what your job is for the first ten years after you graduate,” she says. “Learn a skill in that time. Follow your interests in the early part of your career. It all comes back and is relevant.”
Democrats on Ice
From the New York Times: Days before the Iowa caucuses, Sutphen was a foreign policy adviser to Obama. Her husband, Clyde Williams, was a domestic policy adviser to Hillary Clinton. Once high-ranking officials in the Clinton administration, the couple suddenly found themselves contemplating a return to political life.
Sisterhood of Powerful Black Women in Washington Politics Comes to the Fore
From The Washington Post: As part of the largest group of African American women ever to fill high-level government positions, Sutphen found among her peers “a really diverse and compelling group of women.”
Why the US shouldn’t worry overly about the rise of other global powers
The summer 2008 Alumnae Quarterly featured an article by Sutphen about ideas raised in her then-brand-new book, coauthored with Nina Hachigian, The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise.
October 28, 2009
What a wonderful issue [fall 2009] featuring diversity in today’s world! I was naturally impressed by the article on Mona Sutphen ’89, who worked her way up through the “corridors of power” to across the hall from President Obama. She is a tribute to her own qualities of her heart and mind, to her parents and her upbringing, to her education at Mount Holyoke, and to her own initiative. At first it seemed like a life impossible to us older alums, and yet I look at the first class notes [tribute] and see that Sally Arny Holmes ’28 accomplished many of the same things in a smaller milieu. This is a wonderful tribute to women’s education and Mount Holyoke specifically.
Mary-Ellen Miller Campbell ’48
Chestertown, MD
Impressed by Mona Sutphen
What a wonderful issue [fall 2009] featuring diversity in today’s world! I was naturally impressed by the article on Mona Sutphen ’89, who worked her way up through the “corridors of power” to across the hall from President Obama. She is a tribute to her own qualities of her heart and mind, to her parents and her upbringing, to her education at Mount Holyoke, and to her own initiative. At first it seemed like a life impossible to us older alums, and yet I look at the first class notes [tribute] and see that Sally Arny Holmes ’28 accomplished many of the same things in a smaller milieu. This is a wonderful tribute to women’s education and Mount Holyoke specifically.
Mary-Ellen Miller Campbell ’48
Chestertown, MD