The National Journal reports on Connie Veillette joining CGD as the director of the rethinking U.S. foreign assistance initiative.
By Naureen Khan
September 21, 2010
After 28 years of working on Capitol Hill, Connie Veillette was ready to call it quits. Veillette, the mother of a 5-year-old son, was settling into retirement when the Center for Global Development came calling and made her an offer she couldn't refuse. This week, she begins as the director of the organization's Rethinking Foreign Assistance Program.
Veillette cites a more family-friendly schedule as one of the primary reasons for the move. "Someone described a congressional schedule as 'unforgiving,' " Veillette says. "And it is hard to have a job where you're a slave to the congressional calendar and you're also trying to spend time with your children. For me, it got to a point that it was too much. I had done my 28 years."
Veillette's new post is the culmination of a long career spent working on issues related to foreign aid. She came to Washington in 1983 to work in the office of former Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, shortly after receiving her bachelor's degree in international relations from Ohio University. She spent the next 20 years ascending the ranks, ultimately becoming Regula's chief of staff, a position she held for 10 years.
Most recently, she worked as a foreign assistance specialist at the Congressional Research Service and as a senior professional staff member for Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
At the Center for Global Development, Veillette will primarily be working on the foreign assistance reform debate. "I've always been interested in aid because, for both humanitarian and strategic reasons, it's an important component of our foreign policy," Veillette says, noting that her interest in the subject began during a study abroad excursion in France.
While working full-time on the Hill, Veillette also earned a master's in Latin American studies and a doctorate in political science, both from George Washington University, where she teaches classes in the Graduate School of Public Management. In the midst of juggling work and school, Veillette took to waking up at 5 a.m. to write her dissertation.
"It's not easy, but it's doable," she says of the balancing act. "When I was working for Mr. Regula he completely understood and he supported people getting further degrees. He totally got it - and I didn't have a kid then either."
She now hopes to pass on to her students - many of them junior Hill staffers - lessons she learned during the course of her long career. "I was on the Hill for so long," Veillette says. "[Teaching] seemed like an opportunity to teach them how Congress works and how they can play a role in making it better."