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By Gregg Sangillo, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Monday, Nov. 19, 2007

Cindy Jimenez has witnessed an inclusive leadership firsthand. Until earlier this year, she worked for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And her path to working for the first woman speaker was anything but typical. The daughter of Mexican migrants, Jimenez grew up in Brownsville, a Texas border town. She remembers itching to get on student council as early as third grade. As a student at the University of Texas (Austin), she shook the hand of then-gubernatorial candidate Ann Richards and later volunteered on her campaign. Jimenez came to D.C. to work for Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., but the high cost of living forced her to return to Texas. She spent four years as a probation officer before taking a job with Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, which brought her back to D.C.

Green, she says, has always tried to promote minorities to leadership positions in his office. Six years after joining his staff, Jimenez went to work for Pelosi when the California congresswoman became minority whip. And she says that Pelosi went out of her way to give her advice. "She told me herself one time, 'I don't want you to be the person who gets pigeonholed into doing just Hispanic politics. You need to look into expanding your skills and your portfolio.' ... She had much bigger things to worry about, but for her to take the time to tell me that, I really appreciated." After leaving Pelosi's office, she landed a top lobbying job with the Information Technology Association of America.

It's clear that Jimenez has succeeded in a way that transcends her ethnicity and gender. "When I came to ITAA, I wasn't hired because I was a minority or because of my contacts to the Hispanic Caucus. They looked at me for my skills as a leadership staffer and what I was doing for [Pelosi]. My contacts with the Hispanic community were never really a part of the conversation."

Edith Bartley grew up as a Foreign Service brat. The daughter of diplomat Julian Bartley Sr., she was born in the Dominican Republic and lived in Colombia, Spain, Israel, and South Korea. Many years later, while Bartley was attending law school, her world was shattered. When Al Qaeda attacked the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, her father and her brother, Jay, were killed.

The families of the victims of the embassy attacks have received nothing close to the compensation that the families of victims from the September 11 attacks received. Bartley has been on a mission ever since to help the families of those U.S. officials killed in the embassy bombings. Operating a mostly one-person lobbying effort, she forged relationships with members of Congress. And her odyssey exemplifies the abilities of an African-American woman with a nontraditional background and a highly unusual problem. Bartley, 35, had formerly worked for Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Corrine Brown, D-Fla., and she has since worked with members of the Congressional Black Caucus on the embassy compensation issue. But perhaps her closest ally on the matter has been House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo. Bartley started working with Blunt in 1999, when he was deputy majority whip. In fact, when a version of the bill to compensate victims passed the House in October, Blunt praised Bartley by name in a press release (singling out a lobbyist by name is a rare action for any member). "Her tireless work has been instrumental in the ongoing fight to provide equitable compensation," Blunt said in the release.

Bartley, whose full-time job is director of government affairs at the United Negro College Fund, expresses frustration over the obstacles the compensation bill has faced. "It's been a long time. It's a disgrace, really, that this issue has lingered. Our country, I know, can do better." But she appreciates the help she has received from legislators. "One of the positive things that's come out of all of this is that you have members like Maxine Waters [D-Calif.] and Congressman Roy Blunt, who have gotten together and spearheaded behind a common cause."