Evans follows Obama's path to her own meteoric career rise

Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Bess Evans, a 2007 DePauw University graduate who works in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, addresses a DPU Center for Contemporary Media crowd Monday afternoon.

In late spring 2007, an Illinois resident with an eye toward a big-time career in politics came to the Iowa Caucuses a virtual nobody and emerged riding a political destiny that would soon include the White House.

Sound familiar?

You're right. It is the story of President Barack Obama.

But it is also the eerily similar story of a 2007 DePauw University graduate who has spent most of the last six years working alongside the nation's 44th president in a number of fashions -- the caucuses, the primaries, the general election, the historic inaugural parade and even tending to Bo, the Obama family dog.

Bess Evans, whose own rapid rise within the political arena has paralleled the path of Obama, a fellow Illinois resident, humbly dismissed her meteoric ascension Monday afternoon in speaking to a small DPU Center for Contemporary Media crowd.

Chalking up her career acceleration to "much good fortune," she added that knowing somebody who knew somebody who knew that there was an opening at the right time was a key factor in her success.

Regardless, two weeks after wearing a DePauw cap and gown on the East College lawn, Evans was thrown into the presidential primary fray in Spencer, Iowa, a Greencastle-size town of 11,233 and the county seat of Clay County, Iowa.

"I was working with then-Senator Obama," she said, reminding her audience that "only eight percent of the American public could even identify Obama as a U.S. senator at that point, so we had a lot of work to do."

The 2007 recipient of DePauw's Walker Cup, emblematic of the senior who has contributed the most to the DPU community during his or her four years on campus, Evans credits the university with helping her think fast on her feet.

A communication and sociology double major, Evans said DePauw "afforded me an unbelievable opportunity" in teaching her to "learn quickly" and how to benefit from "being a round peg in a square hole."

As field organizer for Obama's campaign, Evans said the instant exposure after graduation marked her first experience outside the university in applying her ability to learn quickly, as she spent seven months preparing for the unique caucuses in Iowa.

"I don't think anybody in Iowa knows my full name," she laughed. "They call me 'Obama Bess.' I still get emails addressed to 'Obama Bess.'"

Evans' own campaign trail led to five additional states for primaries, including her last stop organizing activities in the western half of Indiana.

"I felt a little like a traveling salesman," she conceded, quickly noting the impact Obama organizers had in North Carolina, where the candidate subsequently won by 13,000 votes.

Evans said her connection with Obama being from Illinois got her "excited about what government can do and about changing peoples' lives in ways they don't even know."

"That's what I wanted to do in the first place," she said, "have an impact in peoples' lives."

Just 18 months out of DePauw, she found herself working in the tours and events section in the East Wing of the White House, an admitted thrill for a dedicated "West Wing" TV series junkie.

Calling it an "exquisite experience," Evans immersed herself in "things that sound really fun but are an absolute nightmare to plan."

Like the inaugural parade in which her own parents were among the thousands trapped in "the Purple Tunnel of Doom," as she called it when pedestrian gridlock brought people to a standstill in the underground passageway that led to premium purple seating for the inauguration.

Being out of school for just six years, Evans has already forged a lifetime of memories as she's excitedly experienced working "from the very start of something all the way through to victory."

"I often describe it as 'holding lightning,'" Evans said, with every new experience being "so dynamic."

Currently back at the White House, working in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, she spent parts of 2011 and 2012 in the Attorney General's Office, focusing on women's issues.

Evans worked with the Department of Justice on issues involving violence against women, something she is "very passionate about."

"It allowed me to use a different portion of my brain," she noted, adding that she might have stayed in the Attorney General's Office much longer if she "hadn't got called back to the White House by another appointment."

Moderator Dave Bohmer, director of the Media Center and Media Fellows Program, asked how Evans keeps from getting cynical amid all the Washington, D.C., politicking.

"It doesn't hurt," she smiled, "that I get to walk into the White House every day."

After her impressive dialogue with Bohmer Monday afternoon, she was asked what the next six years might bring.

"I'd love at some point to explore the private sector side of those public-private enterprises," she offered, quickly adding that going back to school and working for a non-profit group also intrigue her.

"But I'm pretty happy where I am for now," Evans allowed.

Greencastle City Council member Jinsie Bingham, however, suggested much bigger things await Evans' future, even posing a potential run for the presidency some day by the young speaker.

"Thank you," the twentysomething Evans said deflecting that notion and relating how difficult a job the presidency really is. "But maybe councilwoman."

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