As part of our “Women on Wednesdays” series, please join the Women & Politics Institute for a virtual conversation with WPI Executive Director Betsy Fischer Martin and the former director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Barack Obama, Cecilia Muñoz, author of the just-published book, More Than Ready: Be Strong and Be You....and Other Lessons for Women of Color on the Rise.

Muñoz, currently the vice president of public interest technology and local initiatives at New America, offers “inspiration to women of color who are no longer willing to be invisible or left behind.” She chronicles her time as a history-making adviser in the Obama administration and the challenges she faced as the first Latinx person to lead the White House Domestic Policy Council.  She also shares invaluable lessons about working through fear, facing down detractors, and leading with kindness--from her own life and from other women of color.

Cecilia Muñoz is Vice President for Public Interest Technology and Local Initiatives at New America. Prior to joining New America in 2017, she served for eight years on President Obama’s senior staff, first as Director of Intergovernmental Affairs followed by five years as Director of the Domestic Policy Council. Before working in government, she was Senior Vice President at the National Council of La Raza (now UNIDOS US), the nation’s largest Hispanic policy and advocacy organization, where she served for 20 years. Muñoz is also a Senior Fellow at Results for America, a nonprofit that advances the use of data and evidence in policy making. She received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2000 for her work on immigration and civil rights, and serves on the Boards of the Open Society, MacArthur and Kresge Foundations, as well as the nonprofit Protect Democracy Project.

Betsy Fischer Martin is an Emmy-winning journalist and former TV news executive. Currently, she is the Executive Director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University and a faculty member in the School of Public Affairs, where she teaches courses on campaigns and elections. During her earlier career in television news, she spent 23 years at NBC News serving as the longtime Executive Producer of Meet the Press with Tim Russert and as the Managing Editor of NBC News Political Programming.

"Women on Wednesdays": Cecila Muñoz - "More Than Ready," in conversation with Betsy Fischer Martin