Democratic strategist Donna Brazile to speak at Bridgewater College

Looking toward Election Day on Nov. 6, Democrat strategist and political analyst, Donna Brazile, will speak at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 24, in Cole Hall at Bridgewater College.

A native of New Orleans, Brazile began her political career at the age of 9, when she worked to elect a city council candidate who had promised to build a playground in her neighborhood.

Four decades and many local and state campaigns later, Brazile has worked on every presidential campaign from 1976 through 2000, when she served as campaign manager for former Vice President Al Gore, becoming the first African American woman to manage a presidential campaign.

Brazile is vice chair of Voter Registration and Participation at the Democratic National Committee and former chair of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute.

She is founder and managing director of Brazile & Associates LLC, a general consulting, grassroots advocacy and training firm based in Washington, D.C. Brazile is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.

Her passion is encouraging young people to vote, work within the system to strengthen it and run for public office.

Brazile is a syndicated newspaper columnist for United Media, a columnist for Ms. Magazine, and O, The Oprah Magazine, an on-air contributor to CNN and ABC, where she regularly appears on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

In August 2009, O, The Oprah Magazine selected Brazile as one of its 20 remarkable visionaries for the magazines first-ever O Power List. In addition, she was named among the 100 Most Powerful Women by Washingtonian magazine, Top 50 Women in America by Essence magazine, and received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s highest award for political achievement.

Sponsored by the W. Harold Row Endowed Lecture Series, the program is free and open to the public.

Bridgewater College is a private, four-year liberal arts college located in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Founded in 1880, it was the state’s first private, coeducational college. Today, Bridgewater College is home to approximately 1,700 undergraduate students.