MANAGING PARTNER
Betsy Wright Hawkings
Betsy Wright Hawkings has built a reputation for dynamic advocacy and strategy development, integrity, leadership, mentorship and service on both sides of the aisle and across the political spectrum in Congress. The mission of Article 1 Advisors reflects her vision of promoting that approach. Betsy believes that when government is more responsive and accessible to those it serves, it will regain their trust.
As Chief of Staff over two decades for four Members of Congress who held the full range of Republican perspectives, Betsy took a leading role in helping build bipartisan coalitions to balance the federal budget in 1995-96; to apply civil rights, fair labor standards and workplace safety laws to Congress; and to establish the 9-11 Commission and implement its recommendations. She was known for her ability to instill a “customer service culture” while maximizing the use of the resources at her disposal and the talents of her team.
Having served as Chief of Staff to Congressmen Christopher Shays of Connecticut, Mike Turner of Ohio, Bobby Schilling of Illinois and Andy Barr of Kentucky, Betsy was recognized in 2014 with the Stennis Center’s Cresswell Congressional Staff Leadership Award.
Betsy was founding Director, and first Managing Director, of Democracy Fund (DF)/ DF Voice’s Principled Leadership & Effective Governance Program, which sought to foster dialogue across the ideological spectrum and advocate strategies to promote leadership and effective public service based on the uniquely American ideals of our Constitution. Betsy built and expanded DF’s Governance grantmaking portfolio into more entrepreneurial space, supporting emerging nonprofits working to expand the capacity of Congress to fulfill its responsibility to the American people. Under her leadership, DF developed and funded new campaigns for needed evolution of congressional systems, processes and procedures; and conceived, invested and incentivized collaboration in innovative programs to deepen leadership development for Members of Congress and staff alike.
Betsy has found the greatest professional success and reward in developing and leading innovative, entrepreneurial, collaborative and customer-based efforts to support our leaders. She is known as an effective fundraiser, dynamic communicator and passionate advocate, able to bring together a broad range of voices to promote the strategic goals of her organization and its leadership, as well as the professional growth of her staff. She has proven her ability to manage organizations through change and serves as a mentor to many, in Washington and around the country.
Betsy personally financed her education at Williams College, where she was named a Mead Scholar of American Studies, and has done coursework at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She is a founder of the Form of 1981 Memorial Fund at her alma mater, Groton School, to support student financial aid, and has been recognized with that School’s Cui Servire Est Regnare award for "service to country, community and the School.” She is also a recipient of the John C. Stennis Center for Public Service’s William E. “Eph” Cresswell Congressional Staff Leadership Award, which “honors a congressional staff member who has demonstrated the ideals of patriotism, integrity, and leadership through public service that characterized the life and career of Eph Cresswell, and who have provided exceptional staff leadership that has helped strengthen Congress as an institution of American democracy.”
An avid volunteer for educational institutions and organizations supporting and advocating for women, she is a passionate believer in, and promoter of, the virtue of public service, and currently serves as a senior strategy advisor to both the Partnership for Public Service and Issue One. She serves on the Advisory Boards of Unite America!, She Should Run, the Renew Democracy Initiative and the Healthy Democracy Coalition, and on the Boards of Directors of both the U.S. Capitol Historical Society and the Women’s Campaign Fund, of which she is also Treasurer. She and her husband, veteran congressional journalist David Hawkings, have two grown sons.
Education
WILLIAMS COLLEGE
B.A. American Studies + Art History
HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT
Executive Education
Activities & Affiliations
• U.S. Capitol Historical Society, Board Member
• Women’s Campaign Fund, Board Member and Treasurer
Senior Advisor to:
• Partnership for Public Service
• Issue One
• Unite America!
• Healthy Democratic Coalition
• Running Start
Recognition
• John C. Stennis Center for Public Service’s William E. “Eph” Cresswell Congressional Staff Leadership Award