Through nearly two decades, A. Brooke Bennett has dedicated herself to building up the wider staff structures on Capitol Hill — including helping to start a program to mentor female senior staff in Republican offices.
The value of that program, called Window into Excellence, Bennett said, is giving women on Capitol Hill an entry point to engage with other senior women.
“When I first started, my mentors were all men,” said Bennett, chief of staff to Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.).
When women can mentor women, she said, the staffers can “put aside any preconceived notions about gender, or other filters through which you might see different issues arise.”
And while Capitol Hill “has a tendency to be perceived as being a very male-dominated environment,” Bennett said, “that’s not the reality on the ground.”
Bennett also runs a GOP chief of staff breakfast club, and she started a bipartisan chief of staff book club and helped start a bipartisan chief of staff Listserv that became instrumental in helping to distribute information at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this year, Bennett was recognized as one of the winners of the 2023 Women’s Congressional Staff Foundation Leadership Impact Award.
The role of chief of staff, Bennett said, is “a lot more human resources than I think people recognize,” and “a lot more administrative than people recognize.” She added that the key to success in the role is “being able to look ahead and manage ahead.”