| So you can catch up with people you knew at AU Shelly Livingston, S0C ’91 When Shelly Livingston first came to Washington in 1973, fresh out of Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, she became a tour guide at the U.S. Capitol. “At the time, I thought it was pretty glamorous,” says the 1991 SOC public communication grad and former House of Representatives staffer, but “Some of the questions we got! I’ll never forget one: ‘Honey, we’ve seen the House, and we’ve seen the Senate. Now where’s Congress?’” Today, Livingston still puts her energy into guiding people through the in and outs of democracy. Only now, she’s doing so as the treasurer and first Political Action Committee chair for the historic Woman’s National Democratic Club (WNDC), which was founded in 1922. Livingston found her way into influencing women to be more politically active by way of a long career with the House of Representatives. Bored with her Capitol tour guide duties, in 1974, a friend helped her get a courtesy interview with the chief of staff for the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which Livingston hoped would include some tips on how to get a job at the State Department or the United Nations. She was invited to start work the next day. After five years as a staff assistant for the Arms Control Sub-committee, in 1979, she was asked to become the financial administrator for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, a position she held until 2001 when she retired. “I didn’t want to leave. But I wanted to travel and do other things, and I could leave. So I did.” A well-seasoned traveler since college when she spent her junior year in Switzerland, she and her husband celebrated retirement by taking a seven-week drive across the country and into Canada, making stops in the Black Hills of South Dakota, Glacier National Park in Montana, and Banff, in Alberta, Canada. They have traveled extensively in South America and Europe. Her favorite: Slovenia, for its undiscovered charm. Livingston joined the WNDC in 2002. “Let’s just say that after the last few years on Capitol Hill. I needed to rechannel my anger into something hopefully positive on the political front.” She considers her duties of educating and rallying members to support candidates a welcome respite and calls the historic club an oasis. Each inviting corridor of the nineteenth-century Dupont Circle mansion, home to the WNDC since 1927, is lined with more interesting historic photos and Democratic women’s memorabilia than the next, and, says Livingston, “The members and staff are so wonderful.” They are equally impressed with Livingston. “She’s a vital and energetic person and a big life force within the club,” notes longtime WNDC member and secretary of the PAC Steering Committee Lida Churchville. Today, Livingston’s goals are clear: “Long term, get our members interested in running for office . . . Short term, win back the House or Senate.” —Melissa Reichley continued next page |
