Who’s crafting public policy? A push to diversify Capitol Hill staff.
When Jennifer DeCasper quit her job as a Colorado prosecutor to move to Washington, D.C., and serve the American people, she didn’t imagine doing it on the tarmac of Dulles Airport.
But amid the 2008-09 Great Recession, the only job she could get was guiding planes to their gates with orange batons and handling baggage. So there she was, wearing a fluorescent vest and waiting at the foot of the stairs to a plane, when a former law firm colleague handed over her bag. The woman didn’t even recognize Ms. DeCasper.
“Dulles was probably my greatest job, because it taught me the most in terms of humility, in terms of the way you treat people, the way you see people,” says Ms. DeCasper, who a year later landed a position with GOP lawmaker Tim Scott of South Carolina, and is today the senator’s right-hand woman. “I truly think that Dulles was necessary for me to be who I am today as the chief of staff.”
Ms. DeCasper brings a different worldview to an institution traditionally staffed by upper-class graduates of elite universities. She was born to a teenage mother in Lincoln, Nebraska, and her dad worked as a garbageman.
When she first came to Capitol Hill, it was as a graduate of what is now Colorado Mesa University in Montrose. When she returned to Washington, she had a University of Michigan law degree but was a single mother working a blue-collar job. Now, among the Senate’s 100 chiefs of staff, she is likely the only former luggage handler – and one of only two who are Black.
Amid a growing movement to broaden the ranks of congressional staffers, Ms. DeCasper stands out not only for who she is, but also for how she cultivates diversity. While many offices hire from within their own networks, she looks outside the usual Capitol Hill circles, searching for people with interesting
