Dawn Alexander:
CLASS OF 1973
Edgemont High SchoolClass of 1973
Scarsdale, NY
Southeastern UniversityClass of 1999
Washington, DC
Dawn's Story
Well, I left Edgemont headed for New England Conservatory of Music. I spent two years there and transferred back to my hometown of Washington, DC. There I did two more years in music at Howard University and got my first job in the United States Senate. Say what? Yep, in the office of the junior senator from the State of Colorado -- Gary Hart. Worked there for nine years, through one Senate re-election race and 1.25 presidential campaigns. The first campaign was great and I learned a lot. When "where's the beef" Hart lost to Mondale, I was deployed to work with him as a show of unity and all that. Election night in Minneapolis-St. Paul was truly depressing.
When Hart retired from the Senate in 1985, I began working for a local elected official in Washington. Did that for a total of seven years. I say a total of seven years because while still working for her, Hart decided to try it again and I was asked to join the campaign in Colorado. I quit my job, packed my things, and moved out there. The rest is history. You remember the monkey business on the Monkey Business. That was like packing up and putting all of my stuff in storage just to get away for the weekend. (Note to myself: Should have gotten therapy then.)
After these events, a number of us (staff) were cuddled in a Colorado bar with reporters licking our wounds, all of us. After all, if Hart went to the White House (and he surely would have if he hadn't been caught) the reporters covering him would have become the White House press corps. The Washington Post reporter asked me what I planned to do now that the campaign was over. Just in passing, I said I would probably go back to my old job. The next morning, my old boss called me on the phone from Washington and asked, "Coming back, are you?" WHEW! So, I went home reluctantly. I had an apartment with a balcony that looked out on the Rocky Mountains that would not quit. Actually, it was therapeutic.
Michael Dukakis became the campaign frontrunner. I was recruited to serve as Kitty Dukakis' press secretary for the general election campaign. (I th...Expand for more
ought to myself, if I leave this woman's staff one more time...but, she was a Dukakis supporter.) They flew me to Boston to meet Kitty and the Governor (who would join us later in the day). I guess I arrived at their home around 11:00 a.m. Before I could put down my bag, she asked if I wanted something to drink. She said, "I'm having iced tea." I said, "I'll have what you're having." She said, "I'm putting vodka in mine." WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THAT AT 11:00 IN THE MORNING? The rest of that is history, too. Treatment works! As it turns out, the campaign was uneasy with the fact that I had gone for a few years without filing an income tax return. The government owed me so little I didn't bother to file for it. But that's okay, Michael riding around in that army tank took care of my even having to make a decision about leaving my job AGAIN. Just think about it, if you guys knew I'd skip a few years filing returns, I would have never been elected junior class president.
Anyway, I'm back in DC and the councilwoman I worked for decides to join the national committee for the governor of Arkansas who was running for president. We work on his campaign. I work on his inaugural committee, and go to the White House when he goes to the White House. Did that for two-and-a-half years. I left after Vince Foster's suicide and Ken Starr's investigation, but before Monic Lewinsky's...... WHEW! I was REALLY tired of politics by that time. What an opportunity, though! I traveled all over the world on Air Force One or the press charter.
I left The White House and began working for Burson-Marsteller, one of the world's largest public relations firms (owned by Y&R, one of the world's largest advertising agencies). It's funny. Harold Burson of Burson-Marsteller lives in Edgemont. His wife and Bob Jaffe's mother were good friends. Remember Bob? I haven't spoken with him in a very long time. I stayed with the firm for over five years, but I'm not as money driven as you have to be to work at a place like that for a LONG time. I enjoyed the event planning and working with the media, though.
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