As executive director of the House Democratic Caucus, Sonali Desai helps organize staffer trainings for the party — an effort that is coordinated by staffers, facilitated by staffers and catered to staffers.
Desai — who has worked in several offices and positions on Capitol Hill for more than 10 years — said the program is meant to provide staffers across the caucus an opportunity to learn about various areas of the job from top colleagues.
Instead of having to coordinate one-on-one meetings, Desai and her team plan the sessions, which are open to all staffers in the caucus.
“We definitely saw this as an issue where we could add value as a caucus,” Desai told The Hill in an interview. “So essentially pull out those people that you would, as a legislative staffer or a digital staffer or a [communications] staffer, would want to naturally get coffee with. We’ll do the work of pulling out those folks and putting them on a panel, asking them questions to create that structure.”
The caucus has held 60 trainings since May 2023, which more than 1,300 staffers have attended in total, with the forums focusing on everything from communications, digital, legislative correspondence, scheduling and operations. The numbers, Desai said, are a credit to the diverse nature of the sessions, and they put a spotlight on the “talent” running through the Democratic caucus’s team of staffers.
“That basically touches every single member, at least one staff from every single member of the Democratic caucus,” she said. “We really tried in our programming to provide resources and expertise to folks in a more structured way.”
“And I think that has been a really cool experience, too,” she continued. “One, seeing and hearing from staff about how helpful this stuff has been. But then also, learning through our caucus, how much talent there is on the staff level.”