Cathy
Russell (Catherine M.)hasn’t been in the limelight like her husband, but
she has a strong professional record, and friends and colleagues call her an
inspired choice for the position of ambassador-at-large for global women’s
issues at the State Department. Russell has served for the last four years as
chief of staff to Jill Biden, the wife of the vice president, and she is
married to Tom Donilon, President Obama’s national-security adviser—relationships
that offer easy access to the White House to elevate her issues and help
navigate bureaucratic barriers.
In filling this post, says James Steinberg, former
deputy secretary of State, “you want two things: someone who’s very good at the
job and has the ear of senior policymakers.” Melanne Verveer, who was Hillary
Clinton’s chief of staff in the White House, was the first person appointed to the new post in 2009 by
then–secretary of State Clinton, who created the Office of Global Women’s
Issues. “Melanne had that with Hillary,” says Steinberg. “Cathy has it with
Biden and Obama and [John] Kerry, too; she’s been in that world. She’s an
inspired choice.”
Reached at Georgetown University, where she heads
the newly launched Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security,
Verveer echoes Steinberg’s comments about Russell’s assured entrée. “She will
have that in spades at the White House. She has the natural intelligence and
commitment and will also have the access.” Russell’s appointment is especially
welcome, says Verveer, because there was no assurance the ambassadorial rank
would survive after Clinton resigned. A presidential memorandum dated January
30 and signed by Obama made it a permanent position. “Promoting gender equality
and advancing the status of all women and girls around the world remains one of
the greatest unmet challenges of our time, and one that is vital to achieving
our overall foreign policy objectives,” Obama wrote.
Russell will have to be confirmed by the Senate, but
so far there’s not a peep of protest, in part because she’s one of theirs, a
known quantity, a product of Capitol Hill. She was Senator Biden’s staff
director on the Judiciary Committee in ’94, when he developed the Violence
Against Women Act, and she was a senior adviser to the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, where she drafted the international version of the Violence Against
Women Act in 2007. Tad Devine, a Democratic consultant and, with his wife, a
close friend of Russell and Donilon’s, remembers watching on television the
confirmation hearings of Judge Robert Bork in 1987 and getting all excited
every time he saw Russell sitting behind Biden.
“Cathy is a longtime advocate for women, for
justice, for fairness,” Obama said. “We know that she’s going to be a powerful
voice for women and girls around the world.”
But that was about as public as she got until Obama
announced her appointment at a Women’s History Month celebration in the East
Room of the White House on Monday. “Cathy is a longtime advocate for
women, for justice, for fairness,” Obama said. “We know that she’s going to be
a powerful voice for women and girls around the world.”
Last year Russell oversaw a governmental interagency
process to develop the first United States Strategy to Prevent and Respond to
Gender-Based Violence Globally. A White House statement says she has served as
a volunteer on the Communications Advisory Council of Women for Women
International, an organization that helps female survivors of war move from
crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency. Obama pointed to her work
these last four years with Jill Biden and first lady Michelle Obama on behalf
of military families.
Russell is married to Tom Donilon,
who is the former National Security Advisor to President Barack
Obama.
Like so many women, Russell has compiled a long
record of public service and activism on a set of issues where she has mostly
been in the background. Devine says, “Cathy is a person who can be a principal,
not just a staffer. She can step on the stage herself and lead groups of people
who are interested in a common cause.” A trained lawyer, Russell is described
as a smart and analytical person with a great ability to work with a range of
people. That’s what made her valuable as a staffer, says Steinberg, and it’s
also why so many people are cheering her on as she enters a more public arena.
“This is a great chance to step out of the supporting-someone-else role and
shine on her own.”
