Contents
when women in boardrooms or at the helm of major institutions were a rarity. In assembling our biennial list of the Most Powerful Women in Washington, we had the opposite problem: We came across so many impressive, talented, and influential women that we could have filled many more pages.
We read, researched, and reached out to people in the know across the DC area, from business to media to politics, and asked for names of women in their particular field of expertise or beyond whom they considered powerful. Who is making things happen and having an impact? Who gets her calls (or texts or emails) returned immediately? Who is leading the way in her field? Who has senators on speed dial—and vice versa?
The list of nearly 250 women that follows includes a range of categories, with both those who are in the headlines—White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, for instance—as well as others pulling strings quietly behind the scenes. More than once, we heard from a source, “This is the most powerful woman you’ve never heard of.” Or “She won’t be on any other list but has real power.”
Some women in Washington have power by virtue of their position or their proximity or access to power. Some for their leadership. Some for their ability to mobilize vast networks and connections to make things happen. Some for the skill, expertise, or innovation they bring to their field.
Of course, politics tilts the scales here, especially in these acutely partisan times. That means the list right now includes many Republicans, especially Trump-aligned Republicans who are filling the majority of top government positions, as well as those from both parties who are pushing back against the MAGA agenda and making their voices heard. We know that some of the women on this list, especially those in the national spotlight, can be seen as controversial, polarizing figures. We don’t aim to pass judgment on the job they’re doing or whether they’re using their power to further the public good. We simply mean to present a snapshot of the women who, in the fall of 2025, are wielding—or in some cases challenging—the levers of power in the nation’s capital.
Want to nominate someone for our next Most Powerful Women list? Send an email with the person’s name and position, along with the reason for the nomination, to powerfulwomen@washingtonian.com.
National Politics
Lea Bardon
White House Cabinet Secretary
A former fundraising official for the America First Policy Institute—a think tank formed to promote President Trump’s agenda—Bardon now organizes meetings of the cabinet and makes sure each department and agency chief stays on message.
Pam Bondi
US Attorney General
The fierce Trump ally and former Florida AG is overseeing radical change at the Justice Department to align it with the President’s agenda.
Michelle Bowman
Governor and Vice Chair for Supervision, Federal Reserve Board
The Trump-appointed Federal Reserve governor and former bank commissioner of Kansas oversees bank rules, regulation, and supervision. She has publicly supported the President’s desire to cut interest rates this year.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer
Secretary of Labor
Oregon’s first Republican woman elected to Congress, the one-term representative and the daughter of a Teamster had early support from some union leaders but has embraced Trump’s agenda of agency cuts and deregulation. She has set out to visit all 50 states on an “America at Work” listening tour to report back to the White House the views of workers and employers.
Lisa D. Cook
Governor, Federal Reserve Board
The Biden-appointed economist—a former Michigan State professor and the first African American woman on the Federal Reserve Board—is fighting her dismissal by Trump in court, a case that, however it ends, will likely have major implications for the prized independence of the interest-rate-setting central bank and for presidential power.
Monica Crowley
US Chief of Protocol
After serving in the first Trump administration and as a Fox News foreign-affairs and political analyst, Crowley is America’s representative for major US-hosted events and will have a key role coordinating the nation’s upcoming 250th-birthday festivities.
Tulsi Gabbard
Director of National Intelligence
The former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, once seen as a conspiracy-minded pol on the progressive fringe, turned full Trump enthusiast and is now an inside player, calling the shots for the intelligence community.
Karoline Leavitt
White House Press Secretary
The youngest, and possibly most combative, White House press secretary in history, Leavitt is ever ready to spar with the Fourth Estate on behalf of her boss.
Kelly Loeffler
Administrator, Small Business Administration
One of the top donors to the President’s 2024 campaign (and current donor to his super-PAC, MAGA Inc.), the wealthy Georgia businesswoman also served briefly in the US Senate to fill a vacant seat.
Linda McMahon
Secretary of Education
The former professional-wrestling executive, a staunch Trump ally, is in the process of dismantling the department she was tapped to lead and rooting out race-based policies in higher ed.
Kristi Noem
Secretary of Homeland Security
The cowboy-hat-wearing former South Dakota governor is charged with one of the administration’s top priorities—tightening up immigration by securing the southern border and deporting suspected illegal immigrants.
Jeanine Pirro
US Attorney for DC
One of many presidential appointees pulled from the Fox News galaxy, the former judge and fiery TV personality and Trump ally is all in on the President’s tough-on-crime tactics in the nation’s capital, backing his takeover of the police force and driving a surge in arrests as the city’s chief federal law-enforcement officer.
Brooke Rollins
Secretary of Agriculture
A strong MAGA voice, Rollins was founder of the America First Policy Institute before taking on Agriculture, where she’s overseeing a massive reorganization, relocating most of the DC-area staff to hubs across the country and closing offices to reflect Trump’s vision of cutting the federal bureaucracy.
Melania Trump
First Lady of the United States
The First Lady’s power can’t be denied even though she’s seldom seen in Washington.
Usha Vance
Second Lady of the United States
A brainy trial lawyer and former Supreme Court clerk, Vance left her legal career when her husband became Trump’s running mate. So far, she’s been a quiet presence in Washington, acting in largely ceremonial roles and prioritizing family time.
Susie Wiles
White House Chief of Staff
The onetime lobbyist and Florida campaign chief for Trump (and a UMD graduate) is the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff, making her quite possibly the most powerful woman in Washington, especially given her skill at supporting her boss without appearing to “handle” him.
Micah Yousefi
Executive Director, National Republican Congressional Committee
The GOP’s success in holding onto its majority in the House last year translated to a promotion for Yousefi from NRCC deputy executive director to the top job at the campaign-and-fundraising operation for House Republicans as they head into the ’26 midterms.
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Local Politics
Nina Albert
Deputy DC Mayor for Planning and Economic Development
Considered a star within Muriel Bowser’s administration, the urban planner and longtime city official is at the center of efforts to rebuild and expand DC’s economic base, including the NFL stadium project, as the city faces large cuts in federal investment and workforce.
Angela D. Alsobrooks
US Senator from Maryland
The onetime Prince George’s County Executive became the first African American senator in Maryland history when she defeated former GOP governor Larry Hogan last November.
Muriel Bowser
Mayor of DC
After more than a decade as the most powerful local politician in DC, Bowser has adopted a pragmatic approach to dealing with Trump and his aggressive moves toward the city and its workers, a stance that has frustrated some progressives who’d prefer more mayoral pushback.
Aisha Braveboy
Prince George’s County Executive
Sworn in on Juneteenth, the former Prince George’s state’s attorney, who had prevailed in a nine-person Democratic primary, got right to work highlighting public safety and her county beautification effort, Project Elevate.
April McClain Delaney
US Representative from Maryland
The founder of Common Sense Media’s Washington office and former Biden-administration Commerce official survived a crowded primary last year and won election to the district her husband had represented until his 2020 presidential bid.
Winsome Earle-Sears
Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and GOP Nominee for Governor
The former Marine and the state’s first woman lieutenant governor has presided over the Virginia Senate with a conservative viewpoint—on everything from gender politics to gun policy—that she hopes will sweep her to victory this November and keep the keys to the governor’s mansion in Republican hands.
Aruna Miller
Lieutenant Governor of Maryland
A transportation engineer and former state delegate, as well as the first immigrant to hold statewide office in Maryland, Miller has focused on matters related to mental health, substance abuse, and transportation and is leading the search for the state’s next transportation secretary.
Beverly Perry
Senior Adviser to the DC Mayor
No one is closer to Muriel Bowser than the lawyer, public-policy official, civic leader, and for-mer Pepco executive who’s been the mayor’s chief aide from the start of her administration a decade ago.
Brooke Pinto
Member, DC Council; Chair, Judiciary and Public Safety Committee
The youngest member of the DC Council has emerged as a leader, largely through her work on public safety. She’s made the rounds of all eight wards and is seen as a moderate and a consensus-seeker on the hot-button issues of crime, the courts, and Congress.
Pamela A. Smith
Chief, Metropolitan Police Department
Smith has been MPD chief for the past two years—and previously was chief of the US Park Police. Her power seemed to be hanging by a thread this summer when the President ordered a federal takeover of DC’s police department. At press time, the takeover had just ended.
Abigail Spanberger
Democratic Nominee for Virginia Governor
The former congresswoman and moderate Democrat is the party’s hope for winning back the governor’s mansion in this purple state.
Tammy Stidham
Associate Regional Director, Lands and Planning, National Park Service
Described by one local leader as “the most powerful woman in Washington no one has heard of,” Stidham decides what happens on most of the open space in the city. She also holds seats on the DC Zoning Commission and the National Capital Planning Commission.
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Power on the Hill
Marsha Blackburn
US Senator from Tennessee
The fierce Trump ally, who was center-stage during budget discussions pushing for more safeguards on Big Tech, recently launched a campaign to become Tennessee’s first woman governor.
Shelley Moore Capito
US Senator from West Virginia; Chair, Senate Republican Policy Committee; Chair, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
A moderate who runs the party’s internal-research arm and is willing to reach across the aisle, Capito—the daughter of a former West Virginia governor—aligns with Trump on matters of energy and climate that loom large in her state.
Susan Collins
US Senator from Maine; Chair, Senate Appropriations Committee
The longtime swing senator now has the “power of the purse” to determine which Trump priorities are funded.
Jasmine Crockett
US Representative from Texas
The Texan’s caustic exchanges with Trump officials at House Oversight hearings have become social-media gold and turned her into a rising Democratic star and fundraising champ.
Joni Ernst
US Senator from Iowa; Chair, Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee
The influence that the high-ranking Republican wields in her party appears to have an expiration date on it now that the two-term senator and combat veteran has decided not to seek reelection next year. Though she ultimately supported Trump’s DOD pick, Pete Hegseth, her early doubts about him last year irked the MAGA crowd and sparked rumblings of a 2026 primary challenge to her from more conservative corners.
Virginia Foxx
US Representative from North Carolina; Chair, House Rules Committee
The former educator is the only woman leading a House committee in this Congress and a strong conservative voice, especially on issues surrounding college campuses and cultural debates.
Marjorie Taylor Greene
US Representative from Georgia
The MAGA flamethrower raises issues that galvanize the base, and she’s not unwilling to challenge the White House.
Amy Klobuchar
US Senator from Minnesota; Chair, Democratic Steering and Policy Committee
A powerhouse within the Democratic caucus, the centrist brings a no-nonsense Midwestern style to critiques of the President’s policies, from food-assistance cuts to threats to democratic practices.
Elizabeth MacDonough
Senate Parliamentarian
MacDonough, the first woman in this key nonpartisan post, has held the job since 2012. Her interpretation of Senate rules can confound GOP members’ efforts to push through the Trump agenda, as it sometimes has with Democrats when they’ve held the power.
Lisa McClain
US Representative from Michigan; Chair, House Republican Conference
As the fourth-highest-ranking Republican in the House, the former business owner played a key role in messaging and advancing the President’s sweeping budget overhaul.
Lisa Murkowski
US Senator from Alaska; Chair, Senate Indian Affairs Committee
The four-term senator may be one of the few GOP senators not reliably on Team Trump, but so far she’s been willing to let the President’s agenda move forward, having cast the decisive vote to approve his big federal budget bill.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
US Representative from New York
Since her election in 2018 at age 29, AOC has become the most powerful progressive in the House, her dynamism and fundraising prowess likely shaping the Democrats’ approach to the midterms.
Nancy Pelosi
US Representative from California; Speaker Emerita
Even without the speaker’s gavel, Pelosi is the most influential voice in the Democratic caucus, the maker and breaker of leaders.
Jeanne Shaheen
US Senator from New Hampshire; Ranking Member, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
The former New Hampshire governor and three-term senator is the Democrats’ chief voice pushing back on the President’s America First foreign-policy approach, particularly on issues related to Ukraine; tariffs and trade; and alliances and foreign aid.
Elissa Slotkin
US Senator from Michigan
Slotkin’s influence on the party’s direction and ability to rebuild has yet to be tested, but the former CIA analyst and Obama official is the Democrats’ great moderate hope, part of the “mod squad,” along with former representative Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee for governor in Virginia, and representative Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic nominee for governor in New Jersey.
Elise Stefanik
US Representative from New York
The MAGA warrior took one for the team by withdrawing from consideration for the UN ambassadorship to ensure the GOP’s slim majority in the House and is now looking to move up through a bid for the governor’s mansion in Albany.
Elizabeth Warren
US Senator from Massachusetts; Vice Chair, Senate Democratic Conference
The wonky former bankruptcy professor thrills the hearts of the party faithful–and infuriates MAGA world.
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International Powers
Kristalina Georgieva
Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
Prior to assuming her post in 2019, Georgieva was CEO of the World Bank. In 2020, Time named her to its list of the 100 Most Influential People.
Kirsten Hillman
Canadian Ambassador to the US
A career lawyer and diplomat, Hillman became the first woman to serve as Canada’s US ambassador in 2020 and is credited with playing a key role in updating the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (formerly NAFTA). She’s in DC during a particularly critical period in the relationship between the two allies.
Princess Reema Bandar al-Saud
Saudi Ambassador to the US
The daughter of former ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan grew up in DC and graduated from Holton-Arms School. She became the first female ambassador in Saudi Arabian history when she was appointed in 2019 and is now six years into her role navigating a complicated diplomatic relationship.
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Legal Powers
Lisa Banks
Partner, Katz Banks Kumin
Banks, a top lawyer of the #MeToo movement, is, along with partner Debra Katz, representing former US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission chair Charlotte Burrows, who was fired by the Trump administration this year, in a case expected to test an old Supreme Court ruling.
Amy Coney Barrett
Associate Justice, US Supreme Court
The Trump-appointed justice clerked for Antonin Scalia before becoming a professor at Notre Dame Law School, her alma mater, then an appeals judge, prior to joining the Supreme Court in 2020. The only conservative-leaning woman on the court, she’s recently emerged as something of a swing vote.
Anna Blackburne-Rigsby
Chief Judge, District of Columbia Court of Appeals
The Howard University School of Law graduate chairs the Joint Committee on Judicial Administration, the policymaking body for DC courts.
Lisa Blatt
Chair, Supreme Court and Appellate Practice, Williams & Connolly
Earlier this year, three law professors released a study on Supreme Court litigation concluding that a “handful of elite lawyers increasingly dominate” the field. Blatt, who has argued 54 cases before the high court, was the winningest lawyer in the bunch, with an 83-percent success rate—and the only woman on the list.
Cristina Carvalho
Partner, ArentFox Schiff
After seven years as a managing partner, Carvalho is now on the executive committee of this prestigious law firm, where she oversees an international practice and specializes in intellectual property.
Ketanji Brown Jackson
Associate Justice, US Supreme Court
The DC native and the newest member of the court graduated from Harvard Law in 1996 and served on DC courts for almost a decade before President Biden appointed her to the Supreme Court in 2022.
Elena Kagan
Associate Justice, US Supreme Court
A graduate of Princeton, Oxford, and Harvard, this Obama appointee clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall and was associate counsel to President Clinton before joining the Supreme Court in 2010. This summer, she called for fellow justices to be more transparent while making decisions on the emergency docket.
Debra Katz
Partner, Katz Banks Kumin
She and her partner, Lisa Banks, are representing the former EEOC chair in a case expected to test a 90-year-old Supreme Court ruling. Previous clients include former employees of the Washington Commanders.
Skye Perryman
President and CEO, Democracy Forward
Leading the progressive pro-democracy legal and advocacy nonprofit during the Trump era has earned the highly visible lawyer and rights defender recognition as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People.
Nicole Saharsky
Partner, Mayer Brown
In 2022, she led the team that secured a landmark $24 million settlement for the US Women’s National Soccer players from the US Soccer Federation in their equal-pay lawsuit. She’s also no stranger to the Supreme Court, having argued 32 cases and counting there.
Diane Seltzer
Principal, Seltzer Law Firm
This 1991 American University law graduate has helmed her eponymous employment-law firm for more than 25 years and is the current president-elect of the DC Bar.
Linda Singer
Head of Public Client Experience, Motley Rice
Among her more recent headline-making cases, the former attorney general of DC represented the US Virgin Islands in its 2023 suit against JPMorganChase, alleging that the bank enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking. The bank ultimately settled for $75 million.
Sonia Sotomayor
Associate Justice, US Supreme Court
The Yale Law grad was appointed to various courts by Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton before Barack Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court. She is the longest-serving woman currently on the court and has been outspoken about her colleagues’ siding with the Trump administration.
Beth Wilkinson
Partner, Wilkinson Stekloff
Considered a top antitrust lawyer in DC, she recently represented Hewlett Packard Enterprise against the DOJ, which was trying to stop it from buying a company called Juniper Networks. They settled, and HPE was allowed to continue with the purchase.
Paula Xinis
Judge, US District Court for the District of Maryland
This Obama appointee is the federal judge facing off with ICE in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case. At press time, Abrego Garcia was being held in a Virginia detention center, and Xinis had barred ICE from deporting him before his next immigration hearing, scheduled for October 6.
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Business Powers
Gina Adams
Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, FedEx
A three-decade veteran of FedEx and its chief lobbyist, Adams oversees all legal, security, and government affairs for one of the largest shipping companies in the world.
Jan Adams
Founder and CEO, JMA Solutions
In 2005, the 24-year Air Force veteran founded her own government consulting firm, which supports the FAA. She’s also a co-owner of the new women’s soccer team DC Power.
Priscilla Almodovar
President and CEO, Fannie Mae
The banking/finance/real-estate professional is the first woman to lead Fannie Mae, which manages more than $4 trillion in assets.
Shaza Andersen
Founder and CEO, Trustar Bank
After growing the first bank she founded, WashingtonFirst, to more than $2 billion in assets—and selling it to Sandy Spring Bank for $447 million in 2018—Andersen founded Trustar. This spring, the Northern Virginia bank with more than half a dozen locations raised nearly $17 million to expand.
Mary Brady
President and CEO, Economic Club of Washington, D.C.
As president of one of the premier professional groups for business leaders in the District, Brady oversees a powerful membership roster of nearly 1,000 top executives. She’s been with the club since its inception in 1986, becoming president and CEO in 2021.
Teresa Carlson and Maryam Mujica
President, General Catalyst Institute (Carlson), and Chief Public Policy Officer, General Catalyst Institute (Mujica)
A tech-leadership veteran (including stints at Amazon and Microsoft), Carlson became founding president of GCI when the venture-capital firm General Catalyst—which Time recently ranked as the country’s number-two VC firm—launched it last year to study and influence global government policy regarding the impact of AI and other technology on various industries. Mujica, second in command at the institute, leads global policy engagement.
Debra Lerner Cohen
Principal Owner, Washington Nationals
Along with her siblings, she is principal owner of DC’s professional baseball team. Despite its recent poor performance and controversial front-office moves, the team has a $2.1 billion valuation, according to Forbes.
Marlene Colucci
CEO, The Business Council
The George W. Bush–era policy adviser and lawyer has led this forum of CEOs of major global corporations for more than a decade, giving Colucci extensive connections across business and government.
Monica Modi Dalwadi
Eastern Region Managing Principal, Baker Tilly
The 20-year accounting veteran at the advisory tax-and-assurance firm—one of the top ten in the world—was promoted earlier this year to this new role, overseeing DC, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and New England.
Ashley Davis
Partner, S-3 Group
Davis cofounded West Front Strategies in 2015, growing it into a multimillion-dollar consulting lobbying group. Last year, the company, with its roster of Fortune 500 clients, merged with the boutique public-affairs firm S-3 Group.
Monica Dixon
President, External Affairs and CAO, Monumental Sports & Entertainment
Dixon manages communications and government relations for all of Monumental, whose brands include the Capitals, Wizards, and Mystics; Capital One Arena; and EagleBank Arena.
Kinsey Fabrizio
President, Consumer Technology Association
Fabrizio oversees, among other things, the association’s globally impactful Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which showcases the $537 billion US consumer-technology industry.
Kathryn Falk
Vice President and Market Leader, Cox Communications Northern Virginia
Falk has been a VP at Cox Communications for more than 20 years. A longtime resident of Fairfax County, she sits on several boards, including the board of trustees for Inova and the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce.
Michelle Freeman
Owner and CEO, Carl M. Freeman Companies
Freeman has been in her current role with the family-owned development company since 2009. She’s also president and chairman of the company’s foundation, and she’s a minority partner in Monumental Sports & Entertainment—making her one of only 13 female NBA owners—and a minority partner of the Washington Spirit.
Nora Gardner
Senior Partner, DC Office, McKinsey and Co.
Gardner has been with McKinsey—one of the country’s oldest and largest consulting firms—for 20 years, specializing in organizational change and talent management. Fun fact: She has a PhD in biochemistry and started her career at NIH.
Amy Gilliland
President, General Dynamics Information Technology
GDIT, a business unit of General Dynamics Corporation, is a $9 billion division with nearly 30,000 employees and more than 4,000 contracts—and Gilliland has been at the helm for eight years.
Morgan Gress
Communications Partner, Andreessen Horowitz
Gress leads communications and brand marketing for the Silicon Valley venture-capital firm—one of the top ones in the country. Previously, she was head of government communications at Palantir.
Leslie D. Hale
President and CEO, RLJ Lodging Trust
As leader of the hotel real-estate investment company—a role she’s held since 2018—Hale oversees a portfolio that includes 94 hotel brands across the country.
Diane Hoskins
Global Co-Chair, Gensler
Hoskins, who had been co-CEO since 2005, was named global co-chair of Gensler—the world’s largest architecture firm—last year. She oversees day-to-day operations of the 6,000 employees across 57 offices worldwide.
Barbara Humpton
President and CEO, Siemens Corporation
Humpton became president and CEO of Siemens USA—a tech company that employs 45,000 and generated more than $21 billion in revenue last year—in 2018.
Danita Johnson
President of Business Operations, DC United & Audi Field
Formerly president and chief operating officer of the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, Johnson in 2020 became the first Black president of an MLS club and the third woman in league history to have the role.
Jeanelle Johnson
Managing Partner, Washington Office of PwC
After nearly a decade at this top accounting firm, Johnson became managing partner last fall and now oversees 2,200-plus people. She’s also a board trustee of PwC’s charitable foundation and on the Economic Club of Washington, D.C.’s board.
Sheila Johnson
CEO, Salamander Hotels and Resorts
An entrepreneurial powerhouse, Johnson is owner and CEO of the Salamander Collection, whose seven properties include hotels in DC and Middleburg. She’s also the only Black woman to have a principal stake in three pro sports teams (the Wizards, Capitals, and Mystics), and she’s founder and chair of the Middleburg Film Festival.
Michele Kang
Owner, Washington Spirit
Previously CEO of the healthcare IT company Cognosante, which she sold to Accenture in 2024, Kang became the first woman of color to own a National Women’s Soccer League team when she became majority owner of the Washington Spirit in 2022. She’s since acquired teams in France and London, and last year she launched a global organization to promote women’s soccer. This year, ESPN named her Sports Philanthropist of the Year.
Michelle Korsmo
President and CEO, National Restaurant Association
Korsmo leads the 106-year-old association as it continues to navigate a turbulent time in the industry, which includes more than 1 million food-service outlets and a workforce of 15.7 million.
Margery Kraus
Founder and Executive Chairman, APCO
Kraus founded her communications and crisis-management firm more than 40 years ago and has overseen its global expansion, with 35 offices and more than 1,200 employees worldwide.
Stephanie Linnartz
Senior Adviser, Bain & Company; Board Member, Home Depot
Linnartz joined Bain—one of the world’s top consulting firms—last year after an abrupt departure from Under Armour, where she’d spent one year as president. She’d previously spent 25 years as a top executive at Marriott (including her last two as president), in addition to serving on Home Depot’s board of directors.
Katherine Lugar
Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Hilton
In 2023, the former president and CEO of the American Beverage Association went to work for the hospitality giant, where she oversees global communications, government affairs, and sustainability initiatives.
Jodie McLean
CEO, Edens
McLean joined the commercial real-estate development company almost 30 years ago and has been CEO for a decade. She’s credited with helping grow the company to its current status as a market leader, with assets valued at $6.6 billion.
Phebe Novakovic
Chair and CEO, General Dynamics
Novakovic, who earlier in her career worked for the CIA, sits atop the aerospace-and-defense giant where she’s worked for more than 20 years.
Linda Rabbitt
Founder and Chair, Rand Construction
Rabbitt has expanded her 36-year-old firm into the US’s largest woman-founded, woman-owned commercial general contractor, with seven offices and more than $600 million in annual revenue.
Deborah Ratner Salzberg
Principal, Uplands Real Estate Partners
The former longtime president of Forest City Washington, coedited with helping shape the land-scape of Navy Yard, Salzberg now manages investor relations for this family-run real-estate investment firm.
Kyle Schoppmann
Mid-Atlantic President, CBRE
Schoppmann has been with CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real-estate-services and investment firm, for almost 20 years. She oversees six offices and a team of more than 700 people.
Courtney Spaeth
CEO, Growth[Period]
Prior to founding her consulting firm—whose clients include Fortune 500 companies such as Verizon and Lockheed Martin—Spaeth, who holds a graduate degree in national-security studies from Georgetown, was a VP for the defense company Raytheon and served in the Clinton administration.
Kimberly Stone
CEO, Washington Spirit
Having spent 24 years with the Miami Heat, Stone in 2024 became the Spirit’s first CEO, where she heads all business operations.
Mary Streett
Senior Vice President, Americas, Communications and External Affairs, BP
Streett oversees communications and public-policy teams on two continents for the global energy company. She’s also chair and president of the BP Foundation.
Julie Sweet
CEO and Chair, Accenture
Sweet sits atop the massive global consulting firm and Fortune 500 company, which takes in annual revenue of more than $64 billion.
Toni Townes-Whitley
CEO, SAIC
Townes-Whitley leads the Fortune 500 defense contractor with yearly revenue of $7.4 billion and 24,000 employees who support the DOD, FAA, and other federal agencies.
Tamika Tremaglio
Managing Director, Secretariat
Tremaglio was the managing principal for Deloitte’s Greater Washington office before heading to New York City as executive director of the National Basketball Players Association. Now she’s been tapped to lead Secretariat’s new global sports-consulting expansion.
Susan Tynan
CEO, Framebridge
A pioneer in using technology to streamline the purchase of common consumer goods, Tynan revolutionized—and made more accessible—custom framing. Since launching her business in 2014, she has raised more than $81 million in venture capital—reportedly, the most of any woman-founded company in DC.
Kathy Warden
Chair, CEO, and President, Northrop Grumman
Warden leads the massive Fortune 500 global aerospace-and-defense-technology company, which has almost 100,000 employees.
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Lobbying, Advocacy, and Think Tanks
Jane Adams
Vice President, US Federal Government Affairs, and Head of Office, Johnson & Johnson
A 20-plus-year veteran of the pharmaceutical company, Adams heads political strategy and has a reputation as one of the city’s top lobbyists.
Ruth Berry
Senior Director and Head of Policy, NVIDIA
Berry brings her decade-plus experience at the State Department—including as senior policy adviser in the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy—to the semiconductor giant, for increasingly crucial debates on AI regulation and Big Tech.
Rachel Bovard
Vice President, Programs, Conservative Partnership Institute
The Hill insider and former policy director of the Republican Steering Committee now leads programs at this Trump-aligned think tank and networking hub for conservatives. She helped push through the antitrust enforcers that Trump installed at the DOJ and FTC.
Anne Bradbury
President and CEO, American Exploration & Production Council
Considered an energy-sector star—and previously one of the top legislative strategists in Congress, serving as floor director to two successive House speakers—Bradbury leads a group of oil and natural-gas exploration and production companies that’s particularly in sync with this White House’s enthusiasm for drilling.
Remy Brim
Principal and Head, Health and Life Sciences Practice, BGR
A go-to healthcare lobbyist at one of DC’s powerhouse shops, Brim recently represented the University of Pennsylvania in its dispute with the administration over research funding. Though she’s worked for Dems in Congress, her PhD in pharmacology and her postdoc work in bioethics give her clout with a range of clients.
Christine Burgeson
Senior Vice President, Global Government Affairs, Airlines for America
After stints in Congress, the George W. Bush White House, and Citigroup, Burgeson has led advocacy efforts at the nation’s oldest and largest airline-industry trade association, most recently pressing for modernization and dependable funding for the nation’s antiquated air-traffic-control system. (It’s said she’s often on the receiving end of irate calls from members of Congress stranded after airline snafus.)
Kara Calvert
Vice President, US Policy, Coinbase
The top policy official at the nation’s largest crypto exchange, Calvert—a longtime tech lobbyist and former Senate aide—helped her industry score big this summer when Trump signed into law federal rules for stablecoins that limit regulations and oversight of the digital currency.
Machalagh Carr
Founder and CEO, Quell Strategies
Carr launched her own consulting firm in 2023 and was recently brought in to help advise on pol-icy strategy for the Peter Thiel–founded tech company Palantir. She’s familiar with the inner workings of the Hill: She was chief of staff to former speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.
Jessica Carter
Head of Federal Government Affairs, Ford Motor Company
The top lobbyist for one of the largest automakers in America, Carter spent 26 years on the Hill in various roles, including as chief of staff to four different congressmen.
Kirsten Chadwick
Partner, Fierce Government Relations
The former legislative liaison for George W. Bush and a trade-and-treaties expert who’s considered a savvy vote counter, Chadwick has deep ties to congressional Republicans and clients ranging from Apple to General Motors.
Suzanne P. Clark
President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
As head of the nation’s top business lobby, the first woman to lead the organization of more than 3 million businesses, Clark has to navigate choppy waters as her members may cheer Trump’s deregulation and pro-growth agenda but fear talk of tariffs.
Victoria Coates
Vice President, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, Heritage Foundation
A former deputy national-security adviser to Trump, Coates spear-headed the conservative think tank’s “Project Esther” proposal, its controversial action plan to quash the pro-Palestinian movement in the US, especially on college campuses, in the wake of the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
Danielle Coffey
President and CEO, News/Media Alliance
Heading a trade association of more than 2,000 media outlets, Coffey has led efforts to force Big Tech to pay publishers for their content and has championed state and federal AI regulations on use of news content and copyright issues.
Nicole Collier
Vice President, North America Government Relations and Public Policy, Procter & Gamble
The Podesta Group alum spent years as Nestle’s top lobbyist before joining the consumer-goods giant that does business in more than 180 countries.
Kellyanne Conway
Founder, KAConsulting
Though remaining in the background during the Trump administration this go-round, Conway still has the President’s ear and unique access.
Stephanie Cutter
Founding Partner, Precision Strategies
The Obama campaign veteran and Harris-Walz strategist—who produced the 2024 Democratic convention—has managed to stay relevant in MAGA times, with her data-driven firm earning accolades for its campaign against the Ticketmaster monopoly and other high-profile causes.
Raissa Downs
Cofounder and Partner, TDY
After years as a high-level healthcare adviser on Capitol Hill and, in the George W. Bush administration, at HHS, where she helped implement the prescription-drug benefit for seniors, Downs and cofounder Jennifer Young have built an extensive client roster of leading pharma and healthcare players.
Theresa Fariello
Executive Vice President, Government Affairs and Global Public Policy, United Airlines
Fariello leads the state, federal, and international public-affairs strategy for United. Before joining the airline eight years ago, the Georgetown Law alum spent more than 15 years as a VP of Exxon.
Kimberley Fritts
Founder and CEO, Cogent Strategies
A fixture in Republican politics for decades, the onetime Podesta Group CEO brings deep bipartisan connections to her government-affairs/public-relations shop with clients ranging from nonprofits promoting gun safety to Fortune 500 companies like Wells Fargo.
Alexandra Reeve Givens
President and CEO, Center for Democracy and Technology
The lawyer and former Senate Judiciary Committee counsel leads the nonpartisan think tank working to protect privacy and civil rights and liberties in the digital age and to help shape major technology policy. She’s also on the board of the foundation named for her father, actor Christopher Reeve, that seeks a cure for spinal-cord injury.
Juleanna Glover
Founder and CEO, Ridgely Walsh
The quintessential Washington power player, Glover is a lobbyist, public-affairs maven, convener, strategist, commentator, party-thrower, and—as head of the boutique public-affairs firm she founded in 2018—has been an adviser to high-profile companies and organizations from Uber and Microsoft to Netflix and the Smithsonian.
Brigitte Gwyn
Senior Vice President, North America Public Policy and Government Affairs, PepsiCo
This career lobbyist—she’s also worked at Kellogg and Accenture—leads the government-affairs team at the food-and-beverage giant.
Karen Harbert
President and CEO, American Gas Association
With natural gas still central to debates on energy and the environment, Harbert’s years in the field, as assistant secretary at the Department of Energy and later head of the U.S. Chamber’s Global Energy Institute, have given heft to her trade group of 200 local energy-utility companies.
Holly Harris
Founder and President, The Network
The former executive director of the Justice Action Network—a driving force behind a bipartisan prison-reform bill that Trump signed into law in 2018—now works both sides of the aisle to connect lawmakers and governors with top policy experts at events, panels, and forums.
Susan B. Hirschmann
Chair and CEO,Williams & Jensen
The longtime K Street powerhouse and onetime chief of staff to former majority whip Tom DeLay is especially connected in conservative circles but skilled enough to navigate the political spectrum, with a client roster of corporate heavyweights like Ford Motor Co., Eli Lilly, and Comcast.
Kathryn Karol
Senior Vice President, Global Government and Corporate Affairs, Caterpillar
Karol heads government affairs for the world’s largest construction-and-mining-equipment manufacturer. She’s also on the board of the 100-year-old company’s foundation.
Courtney Lawrence
Senior Vice President, Head of Government Affairs and Global Public Policy, Cigna
Lawrence worked as deputy assistant secretary for legislation at HHS before joining the insurance giant seven years ago.
Jane Lucas
Partner, Alston & Bird
A veteran of the first Trump administration—with roles at HHS and the White House counsel’s office and as a domestic-policy adviser for legislative affairs—the former aide to current Senate majority leader John Thune has useful connections.
Maya MacGuineas
President, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
The tax and budget expert and bipartisan watchdog regularly weighs in on economic policy and government spending through congressional testimony, op-eds, and media commentary, this year expressing concern over the fiscal impact of Trump’s budget.
Brittany Masalosalo
Chief Public Policy Officer, HP
The Army veteran and Harvard alum joined the information-technology company in 2021, bringing national-security and foreign-policy experience as a former senior adviser to both Vice Presidents Joe Biden and Mike Pence.
Myechia Minter-Jordan
CEO, AARP
The accomplished physician, public-health advocate, and business exec now leads the nation’s largest nonpartisan nonprofit, representing nearly 38 million Americans aged 50-plus.
Janet Murguía
President and CEO, UnidosUS
The daughter of immigrants, Murguía has led the nation’s largest Latino civil-rights organization for two decades, working to em-power the Latino community through increased voter registration and mobilization—and more recently addressing policies that target her community.
Lisa B. Nelson
CEO, American Legislative Exchange Council
The longtime conservative operative leads the 52-year-old think tank of state legislators with an eye toward limited government that mirrors the priorities of today’s White House on everything from deregulation to energy policy.
Sharon Parrott
President, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
As head of the liberal think tank focused on fiscal policy, poverty, and inequality, the former Obama OMB official has been a leading voice pushing back against Trump’s budget bill and policies affecting lower- and middle-class Americans.
Heather Podesta
Founder and CEO, Invariant
The Democratic lobbyist and longtime Washington influencer and philanthropist has built her government-relations and communications shop into a bipartisan, multisector powerhouse, the country’s largest independent woman-owned lobbying firm.
Lori Reilly
Chief Operating Officer, PhRMA
Reilly oversees advocacy efforts for the pharmaceutical industry’s top trade association, which spends nearly $30 million annually lobbying on drug pricing and regulatory reforms.
Cecilia Elena Rouse
President, Brookings Institution
The former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under Biden—the first Black American in that role—and onetime dean of Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, Rouse now leads one of the world’s most respected and influential public-policy think tanks.
Melissa Schulman
Senior Vice President, Government and Public Affairs, CVS Health
After 14 years on the Hill, in such roles as policy director for Representative Steny Hoyer, Schulman now lobbies for the healthcare behemoth.
Emily Seidel
CEO, Americans for Prosperity
As president of the Koch-brothers-founded conservative advocacy group, Seidel is credited with playing an integral role in the organization’s boosting of the President’s Big Beautiful Bill—including a $20 million grassroots campaign targeting tax reform.
Kelly Ann Shaw
Partner, Akin
The trade specialist joined the law-and-lobbying giant in May after serving as the top international economic official in the first Trump administration, where Shaw was a key architect of trade and national-security policy and the lead US negotiator at global economic-policy forums.
Liz Shuler
President, AFL-CIO
Shuler is the first woman to lead the nation’s largest labor federation, representing nearly 15 million workers.
Kristen Silverberg
President and Chief Operating Officer, Business Roundtable
A former ambassador to the European Union for George W. Bush and law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas, Silverberg manages policy, advocacy, and communications for the lobbying group of more than 200 CEOs of major companies.
Margaret Spellings
President and CEO, Bipartisan Policy Center
The former Education Secretary and policy adviser in the George W. Bush administration and president of the University of North Carolina was hailed by leaders of both parties when selected to lead the nonprofit think tank promoting today’s rarest of Washington commodities—bipartisan solutions and compromise.
Amy Swonger
Principal, Invariant
The lobbyist’s CV has positioned her well for today’s Republican dominance: Swonger served all four years in the first Trump White House as a Senate liaison and legislative-affairs chief after years as an aide to GOP leaders Mitch McConnell and Trent Lott and former Vice President Cheney.
Marie Sylla-Dixon
Senior Vice President, Federal Affairs, Exelon Corporation
Having held senior roles at Amazon, Raytheon, and T-Mobile, Sylla-Dixon was tapped last year to run federal governmental and regulatory activities for the energy company.
April Verrett
President, SEIU
Last year, Verrett became the first Black president of the Service Employees International Union—one of the largest unions in the country, representing 2 million workers.
Kemba Walden
President, Paladin Global Institute
Paladin Capital Group—among the top venture-capital firms in the country—launched this AI-focused think tank last year and brought in Walden, a lawyer and cybersecurity expert, to head it. She also did a brief stint as acting national cyber director in 2023.
Jamie Wall
Vice President, Head of Washington Office, ExxonMobil
Wall’s leadership at one of the world’s largest and most powerful energy companies—combined with her previous advocacy work at SIFMA, the leading securities-industry trade association, and for Republican senators—makes her a formidable force shaping energy policy.
Jennifer Walton
Senior Vice President, US Policy and Government Relations, Pfizer
The career pharmaceutical executive has been with the company nearly 15 years. She previously served as deputy legislative director for Senator Pat Roberts.
Sarah Rosen Wartell
President, Urban Institute
A housing expert and economic-policy official in the Clinton White House, Wartell cofounded the Center for American Progress before taking the reins of the nonpartisan institute that focuses on issues affecting underserved communities.
Amy Best Weiss
Executive Vice President, Global Government Affairs, American Express
Weiss blends public- and private-sector experience in her decade-plus tenure with the credit-card company—she previously directed public policy at PwC and had short stints at both the SEC and Treasury.
Heather Wingate
Senior Vice President, Government Affairs, Delta
Now in her eighth year with the airline, Wingate once worked for MetLife and CitiGroup—and as a special assistant for legislative affairs under President George W. Bush.
Candida Wolff
Executive Vice President and Head of Global Government Affairs, Citigroup
Years as legislative-affairs chief for George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and as staff to GOP Senate leadership have honed Wolff’s reputation as dean of financial-services lobbying in this town.
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Media
Cesca Antonelli
Editor in Chief, Bloomberg Industry Group
The veteran Bloomberg financial reporter and editor—who spent years building overseas bureaus and teams before landing in Washington—leads journalists covering legal, tax, and government matters for the specialized publisher aimed at industry professionals.
Denise Rolark Barnes
Owner and Publisher, Washington Informer
Picking up the baton from her father, the late Calvin W. Rolark, who founded the paper in 1964, Barnes has broadly expanded the impact of Black journalists through the small but influential publication serving the area’s African American community.
Dana Bash
Anchor, “Inside Politics” and “State of the Union With Jake Tapper and Dana Bash”
One of the veteran stars of the CNN firmament continues to plow away at serious-minded interviews even as the administration attacks the network.
Jackie Bradford
President and General Manager, NBC4
The media executive has built her journalism career at NBC, moving up the ranks from financial analyst on the Today show and Nightly News in the late 1990s to the top post presiding over the network’s Washington station.
Shannon Bream
Host, “Fox News Sunday”
The lawyer and longtime Fox correspondent and host is one of the rising stars at the Trump-friendly network, continuing in the tradition of her predecessor, Chris Wallace, in asking tough questions of top administration officials and other Sunday-morning guests.
Margaret Brennan
Host, “Face the Nation”
A former CBS White House correspondent during the Trump and Obama administrations, Brennan is one of the chief broadcast voices on foreign affairs in Washington.
Dasha Burns
White House Bureau Chief and Chief Playbook Correspondent, Politico
The White House bureau chief—who also reports on DC’s boldface names for Politico’s popular morning newsletter and hosts a weekly podcast—has recently added to her portfolio, signing on to moderate an upcoming series focused on bipartisan cooperation for C-SPAN.
Kaitlan Collins
Anchor, “The Source,” and Chief White House Correspondent, CNN
The Alabama native cut her teeth in the conservative media world as a reporter for the Daily Caller before rising through the ranks at CNN as a tough Trump interrogator.
Susan Glasser
Staff Writer, The New Yorker
With the magazine’s “Letter From Trump’s Washington,” the experienced Washington journalist and author interprets Trump World for the liberal universe.
Matea Gold
Washington Editor, New York Times
The longtime Washington Post editor jumped ship last year, landing in the number-two spot in the Washington bureau of the NYT.
Tammy Haddad
CEO, Haddad Media, and Founder, Washington AI Network
Establishment Washington’s social director has moved into the tech world with her AI network—and podcast—bringing together leaders from government, tech, media, and academia for invitation-only events that address AI policy, strategy, and innovation.
Mollie Hemingway
Editor in Chief, The Federalist
The Fox News contributor and editor of the conservative online magazine was a Trump critic during his first presidential run but has since become a reliable POTUS defender and fierce voice in MAGA world.
Anna Johnson
Washington Bureau Chief, AP
Johnson, who first joined AP in 2004, spent time in Cairo and London before being tapped in 2022 to lead the Washington bureau, which this year found its reporters under fire from the White House for sticking to the name Gulf of Mexico instead of Gulf of America.
Eliana Johnson
Editor in Chief, Washington Free Beacon
The former National Review editor and Politico political reporter now heads the conservative, often sharp-toned website that focuses on scoops and exposés, such as its reporting on plagiarism accusations against former Harvard president Claudine Gay, who eventually resigned.
Paula Kerger
President and CEO, PBS
At the helm of the public broadcaster for nearly 20 years, Kerger today faces a challenge like never before since Congress, at Trump’s urging, rescinded all federal funding for PBS and NPR, endangering small and rural public-media stations throughout the country that rely on the federal grants.
Adrienne LaFrance
Executive Editor, The Atlantic
The respected reporter and editor, who’s held a number of positions since joining the magazine in 2014, honed her craft as an investigative journalist with various news organizations, including in Hawaii, where she was a Weekend Edition host for public radio.
Carol E. Lee
Washington Managing Editor, NBC News
A past president of the White House Correspondents Association, Lee covered the White House for Politico, the Wall Street Journal, and NBC News, where she continues on-air reports as a top Washington editor for the network.
Sarah Longwell
Publisher, The Bulwark
The onetime GOP political operative and Never Trumper helped found the conservative news-and-opinion website, which has emerged as a major media force in the Trump resistance.
Katherine Maher
President and CEO, NPR
Along with her counterparts at public television, the tech-savvy progressive is fighting to save NPR from the Republican ax that has taken aim at the nonprofit public-media network by defunding it.
Jane Mayer
Chief Washington Correspondent, The New Yorker
One of the top investigative reporters in Washington, Mayer has a record of breaking news, through both her books and magazine pieces, often delving into the influence of money in politics.
Virginia Moseley
Executive Editor, CNN
The veteran political editor spent years at CBS News and ABC News, including as a senior producer of Good Morning America, before joining CNN in 2012 and moving up through the ranks to her current perch overseeing both domestic and international news operations.
Amna Nawaz
Cohost and Co–Managing Editor, “PBS News Hour”
The Virginia native who, with co-anchor Geoff Bennett, succeeded longtime PBS host Judy Woodruff in 2023, came to the public broadcaster after stints at ABC News, where she anchored coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign, and NBC News, where she was a foreign correspondent.
Kelly O’Donnell
NBC News Political Reporter
At NBC News for more than 30 years, the veteran Washington journalist, who’s covered the White House, Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court, and eight presidential campaigns, is now leading coverage of the Justice Department, a hub of investigations in the Trump administration.
Norah O’Donnell
Contributing Correspondent, “60 Minutes”; Senior Correspondent, CBS News
The Washington native and longtime TV journalist gave up the daily grind this year, leaving the anchor’s chair at CBS Evening News to focus on longer-range investigations and more in-depth interviews, as well as an upcoming book on little-known women pioneers throughout US history.
Anna Palmer
Cofounder and CEO, Punchbowl News
The longtime political journalist, a former Politico senior correspondent, tapped her vast experience covering the power levers of Washington—from Congress to K Street to the Trump White House—to launch the insider-ish news service with her writing partners in 2021.
Martha Raddatz
Co-Anchor, “This Week With George Stephanopoulos”
ABC’s chief global-affairs correspondent and Sunday-morning co-anchor is one of the top foreign-policy reporters in town, having covered wars in Bosnia; Iraq and Afghanistan; Ukraine; and, most recently, the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Swati Sharma
Editor in Chief and Publisher, Vox
In her dual leadership role at the center-left digital news-and-opinion outlet that specializes in “explainers,” Sharma, an alum of both the Atlantic and the Washington Post, oversees editorial content across text, audio, and video platforms as well as business strategy.
Goli Sheikholeslami
CEO, Politico
The ex-Postie and former president and CEO of New York Public Radio was tapped to take the reins of the global news organization in 2022 by its owner, the German media conglomerate Axel Springer.
Kara Swisher
Podcast Host, “On With Kara Swisher” and “Pivot With Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway”
One of the country’s top tech journalists, Swisher has broadened her lens, now taking on a wide range of topics, from comedy to politics, through her popular podcasts.
Cecilia Vega
Correspondent, “60 Minutes”
The former White House correspondent for ABC News jumped to the CBS newsmagazine show two years ago and was named National Latina Journalist of the Year in 2024 by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
Aruna Viswanatha
Senior Reporter, Wall Street Journal
Part of the newspaper’s Pulitzer-winning team this year for a story on Elon Musk, the former Reuters reporter covers national security, the FBI, and Justice Department and is considered one of the top investigative journalists in Washington.
Amy Walter
Editor in Chief and Publisher, Cook Political Report
Taking over for Charlie Cook, who founded the authoritative and nonpartisan analysis of campaigns and elections in 1984, Walter is one of the most reliable and respected voices on American politics today.
Kristen Welker
Moderator, “Meet the Press”
Welker sits at the helm of the enduring NBC public-affairs program, touted as the “longest-running show in television history,” and traditionally the most important franchise on Sunday morning. She and her sister Sunday-show hosts have tried to restore the influence and agenda-setting power these interview programs once possessed.
Aja Whitaker-Moore
Editor in Chief, Axios
The longtime business-and-finance journalist was tapped for the top newsroom role last year at the eight-year-old digital news organization known for its concise, bullet-pointed reporting—what it calls “Smart Brevity”—on everything from politics and policy to media and culture.
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Education Powers
Irma Becerra
President, Marymount University
Since taking the helm of Mary-mount in 2018, Becerra, the university’s first Latina president, has implemented a new academic structure and achieved a designation as a research institution just this year.
Laura Fuchs
President, Washington Teachers’ Union
This teacher at HD Woodson High School was recently elected to lead the WTU for the 2025–28 term.
Ellen Granberg
President, George Washington University
Holding degrees in history from UC-Davis and sociology from Vanderbilt, this longtime professor became the first woman president of GW in 2023.
Anne Kress
President, Northern Virginia Community College
Kress was president of a community college in Rochester before joining NVCC in 2020. Some staff have publicly questioned her program cuts and other decisions, as she leads the second-largest community college in the country in what she has called “a time of great change and disruption in higher education.”
Jennifer King Rice
Provost and Senior Vice President, University of Maryland
Rice’s 25-plus-year tenure at the UMD culminated in her promotion to provost in 2021. She’s responsible for leading the academic direction for all 12 of its schools and colleges.
Falecia D. Williams
President, Prince George’s Community College
After two decades in administration at one of Florida’s largest community colleges, in Orlando, Williams joined PGCC in 2020. She oversees the Largo institution attended by more than 26,000 students and where a $164.4 million renovation to a campus building is currently underway.
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Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Religion
Rosie Allen-Herring
President and CEO, United Way National Capital Area
Though the region faces exceptional challenges this year due to layoffs in the federal workforce, the former Fannie Mae executive, who has led the regional branch of the United Way for more than 12 years, has had to steer her nonprofit through tough times, such as Covid and government shutdowns, before.
Rima al-Sabah
Goodwill Ambassador, UNHCR
A former journalist and wife of the now-retired Kuwaiti ambassador to the US, she has spent a decade in this role with the UN Refugee Agency, which assists people fleeing conflict zones. She is a big name in DC’s philanthropic and social scenes, known for hosting high-dollar fundraising events with VIP guest lists that include presidents, first ladies, and celebrities.
Adrienne Arsht
Philanthropist
While the lawyer and businesswoman has made her mark as a major donor in several US cities—including Miami, where a performing-arts center is named for her—the emeritus trustee of the Kennedy Center has continued to support Washington institutions from the Smithsonian to the Atlantic Council, where she’s executive vice chair of the board.
Katherine Bradley
Chair, KIPP Foundation
The philanthropist, active on a number of boards, has been a prominent and consistent supporter of public education through both the foundation she started to promote innovation and reform in DC public schools—CityBridge Education (now CitySchools Collaborative)—and KIPP, the nation’s largest operator of public charter schools.
Mariann Edgar Budde
Episcopal Bishop of Washington
Overseeing churches throughout Maryland and DC, including Washington National Cathedral, Budde is no stranger to having politicians and VIPs in the pews. But her words from the pulpit to the newly inaugurated President seated before her on January 21 of this year, asking him to show mercy for those “who are scared now”—including some in LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities—made her a hero to many.
Jane Lipton Cafritz
President and CEO, Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation
Succeeding her late husband, Calvin Cafritz, at the helm of the private, independent foundation established by Calvin’s parents more than 75 years ago, Cafritz—who serves on the boards of many of the city’s premier arts and cultural institutions—has continued the tradition of supporting area nonprofits devoted to community service, education, the environment, health, and the arts.
Marcia Myers Carlucci
Philanthropist
A former government-relations specialist and onetime chair of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Service, Carlucci has served on boards related to the arts, reading, and education and as an emeritus director of the Prevent Cancer Foundation.
Jean Case
CEO, Case Foundation; Chairman, National Geographic Society
The former tech executive, and the first woman to chair the National Geographic Society, created the Case Foundation in 1997 with her husband, AOL cofounder Steve Case. They have pioneered “impact investing”—giving that generates both social good and financial return—and vowed to give away much of their fortune during their lifetimes to charitable causes.
Claire Casey
President, AARP Foundation
The global public-policy leader guides the nation’s chief organization focused on reducing poverty among older Americans. Last year alone, the foundation secured over $1.1 billion in benefits and income for more than a million low-income adults and advocated for their rights in the courts.
Kristin Cecchi
Philanthropist
Co-owner with her husband of a residential construction company, Cecchi has supported such entities as the National Portrait Gallery and an Alzheimer’s research group, following the family’s tradition set out by her late father-in-law, Watergate developer Giuseppe Cecchi.
Marlene Malek
Vice Chair and Cofounder, Friends of Cancer Research
The former oncology nurse cofounded the advocacy organization that promotes collaborations to help speed promising cancer treatments, one of Malek’s many advocacy and philanthropic activities that earned her the Ford’s Theatre Lincoln Medal in 2023.
Jacqueline Mars
Philanthropist
Coming in at number 33 on the 2025 Forbes list of the world’s top billionaires—and the richest person in Virginia, according to the magazine—the candy heiress has for decades lent support to the region’s cultural life, most notably the Washington National Opera, as well as the National Archives Foundation and equestrian and conservation interests.
Gail McGovern
Chair, American Red Cross Board of Governors
The former businesswoman stepped up to head the board of the nation’s leading emergency-response and blood-services organization after more than 16 years as its president and CEO.
Catherine Meloy
President and CEO, Goodwill of Greater Washington
Leading the nonprofit’s local affiliate for more than 22 years, Meloy sits at many tables in the Greater Washington business and nonprofit community. She has expanded the job-training organization’s mission with recycling initiatives, adult charter high schools, and plans for a first-of-its-kind redevelopment of a Goodwill store in Arlington to incorporate affordable-housing units.
Jennifer Morris
CEO, Nature Conservancy
Though measures to combat climate change may be out of favor with today’s White House, Morris has pledged that the 75-year-old global conservation organization she leads will fight on by working with businesses on clean-energy solutions and advancing state-level climate-change policies.
Radha Muthiah
President and CEO, Capital Area Food Bank
As head of the region’s largest food bank, which provides food for 60 million meals a year, Muthiah has worked this year to make up for government cuts to food-charity assistance and the increased need from thousands of out-of-work federal employees.
Karen Schaufeld
Philanthropist
Aside from helping the Wolf Trap Foundation raise a record $75 million for its capital campaign in 2023, the Leesburg philanthropist, lawyer, author, and entrepreneur promotes childhood literacy, having cofounded a nonprofit to help low-income preschoolers prepare for kindergarten, and supports a variety of Loudoun County initiatives.
Jill Tiefenthaler
CEO, National Geographic Society
The former president of Colorado College, who became the Society’s first woman CEO in 2020, has turned the nonprofit into a fundraising machine, on its way to a ten-year goal of $1 billion, and has worked to highlight its science and global-exploration work, not just its iconic magazine.
Susan Urahn
President and CEO, Pew Charitable Trusts
Urahn has spent 31 years at the public charity, moving up through leadership roles and guiding its expansion from a small grant-making organization to a research-driven policy-generating nonprofit focused on issues such as conservation, education, governance, and health.
Tonia Wellons
President and CEO, Greater Washington Community Foundation
A powerful force in community development, Wellons presides over the region’s largest public foundation, which has invested $1.7 billion since 1973 to address the critical needs of communities throughout the metro area, from housing to health equity to economic mobility.
Angela F. Williams
President and CEO, United Way Worldwide
The lawyer, nonprofit executive, and ordained minister is the first woman and first African American to lead the 137-year-old charity, among the world’s largest, which serves communities in 35 countries. She was named one of USA Today’s Women of the Year for 2025.
Diane Yentel
President and CEO, National Council of Nonprofits
Joining the nation’s largest network of nonprofits just days before Trump took office this year, the longtime nonprofit leader has been speaking out against, and mounting legal challenges to, some of the administration’s freezes on federal grants to nonprofits.
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Medicine
Maria Ansari
CEO and Executive Director, Permanente Medical Group
A cardiologist by training, Ansari oversees the largest medical group in the United States, which employs nearly 10,000 physicians and 47,000 nurses and staff.
Rina Bansal
President, Inova Alexandria Hospital; Senior Vice President, Inova
Dr. Bansal—still a practicing internist—is leading projects to build new campuses for the Alexandria and Franconia-Springfield hospitals, both slated to open in 2028. She first joined Inova in 2008.
Susan Carroll
Senior Vice President, Inova Health System; President, Inova Loudoun Hospital
Carroll joined Inova in 1996 and has, at some point in her career, been president of each of the system’s five hospitals. In her current role, she leads the 211-bed Loudoun hospital, in addition to handling such system-wide operations as supply-chain and security management.
Annice Cody
President and CEO, Primary Care Coalition
Prior to becoming president and CEO of PCC—a nonprofit organization that works to coordinate healthcare for the vulnerable and uninsured—this past spring, Cody spent 25 years with Holy Cross Health, 11 of them as president of the Holy Cross Health Network.
Kimberlee Daniels
Chief Operating Officer, George Washington University Hospital
Before joining GW Hospital in 2023, the Penn State alum did stints at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, UVA’s ambulatory center, and the University of Maryland. Daniels is responsible for developing GW’s strategic vision.
M. Joy Drass
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, MedStar Health
A graduate of Georgetown’s medical school, Drass spent nearly a decade as president of MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. In her current role, she oversees ten hospitals.
Erin O’Shea
President, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
O’Shea is a renowned biologist with a PhD from MIT and the first woman to lead the institute, a nonprofit devoted to advancing scientific research in biology and human health.
Michelle Riley-Brown
President and CEO, Children’s National
Riley-Brown leads one of the top pediatric hospitals in the US. Before taking the job in 2023, she headed two satellite campuses of Texas’s largest pediatric hospital.
Martine Rothblatt
CEO and Chair, United Therapeutics
Rothblatt founded the $17.6 billion Silver Spring biotech company in 1996 to develop new medical treatments after her daughter was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension. Rothblatt had previously founded the satellite radio company SiriusXM.
Monica Schmude
President, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Virginia
Schmude came to Anthem—Virginia’s largest health plan, with more than 3 million customers—in 2023 from Cigna, where she was market president in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Before that, she was at Aetna in Chicago.
LeighAnn Sidone
President and Chief Operating Officer, Suburban Hospital
Sidone served two stints as interim president before moving into this job last year. The career nurse has spent more than three decades with Suburban.
Nora D. Volkow
Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health
Volkow, a psychiatrist by training, leads the world’s largest source of funding for scientific research on the health aspects of drug use and addiction.
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Arts and Culture
Melanie Adams
Director, Anacostia Community Museum
Adams, who has a degree in English and African-American studies from the University of Virginia, assumed this role in 2018. She has also served as interim director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum.
Sara Bloomfield
Director, US Holocaust Memorial Museum
The powerhouse museum executive has skillfully led one of the most important landmarks on the National Mall for more than a quarter century.
Cynthia Chavez Lamar
Director, National Museum of the American Indian
In 2022, Chavez Lamar became the first Native woman to head a Smithsonian museum. She had served in various roles there over the years, including as a lead curator for one of the museum’s inaugural exhibitions in 2004.
Melissa Chiu
Director, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Within three years of Chiu’s appointment, the Hirshhorn doubled its annual visitation, welcoming more than a million guests in 2017—the highest number in its then four-decade history.
Kaywin Feldman
Director, National Gallery of Art
Feldman, the first woman to lead the NGA, took over in 2019 and has since been credited with expanding not only the museum’s reach but also its collection.
Ann Friedman
Founder and CEO, Planet Word
The former Montgomery County public-school teacher is the force be-hind the interactive linguistics museum—and the restoration of the historic school building it’s housed in.
Aileen Fuchs
President and Executive Director, National Building Museum
Before moving to DC for this role in 2021, the NYU graduate had spent her career in New York. The museum welcomes more than 500,000 visitors a year, many of whom flock to the popular interactive summer exhibit.
Anthea Hartig
Director, National Museum of American History
Hartig helms one of the Smithsonian’s most popular museums, which welcomed more than 2 million visitors last year.
Monica Jeffries Hazangeles
President and CEO, Strathmore
A 31-year veteran of Strathmore, Jeffries Hazangeles got the top job in 2018. She’s credited with raising $110 million in public and private funding to build its largest venue, the Music Center, which houses the 1,976-seat concert hall.
Emily Wei Rales
Director, Glenstone
Rales and her husband founded the contemporary-art museum in 2006 with their personal collection. The museum draws more than 100,000 visitors a year to its Potomac campus, which underwent a $200 million expansion in 2018.
Susan Fisher Sterling
Director, National Museum of Women in the Arts
A fixture at this museum for nearly 40 years, Sterling became director in 2008. Recently, she oversaw a two-year, $70 million renovation.
Ellen Stofan
Smithsonian Undersecretary for Science and Research
Stofan has a big portfolio—she oversees the Smithsonian’s science research centers, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, and more. Before that, she was the first woman director at Air and Space.
Francesca Zambello
Artistic Director, Washington National Opera
The renowned opera director has led the WNO at the Kennedy Center for almost 15 years. This year, she was inducted into Opera America’s Opera Hall of Fame.
This article appears in the October 2025 issue of Washingtonian.
