From 快活app to the White House
Jan. 20, 2017, was the end of an era for 快活app alumna Ellie Schafer (BA 鈥90), who had spent the previous 10 years working for Barack Obama 鈥 the past eight of those as head of the White House Visitors Office.
Schafer鈥檚 road to Washington started when she graduated from 快活app and went to work on her father鈥檚 campaign for governor of North Dakota. Alumnus Ed Schafer (MBA 鈥70) won the race and served from 1992 to 2000.
Her relationship with the Obama campaign began in 2006, when Obama asked Schafer, then working as a political consultant in San Francisco, for logistical help with his book tour. The connection that began with 鈥The Audacity of Hope鈥 led to life on the campaign trail, then to election night 2008, then to eight years of working at the White House.
Q: What was your final week in the White House like? It had to have been emotional.
A:听To go from the book tour to being there when [Obama] announced in 2007, all the way through the campaign, the transition team, the White House 鈥 from beginning to end, it鈥檚 a dream. It鈥檚 something that somebody who works in politics dreams of doing. But it鈥檚 really surreal for it to end, to know that Barack Obama has been my boss for a quarter of my life. It鈥檚 awesome, but now to not have that is weird.
Q: Will you stay in touch with the people you worked with in the administration?
A:听President Obama talks a lot about his ability to create a family. And I really view our campaign as a family. I have had work colleagues that I worked with on a campaign, but this was different. We鈥檙e family. It felt like, 鈥淚 will see them again at the next holiday or the next reunion.鈥 It certainly didn鈥檛 have the feeling of, 鈥淭his is it; goodbye; I鈥檓 never going to see you again.鈥 It was more like, 鈥淲e鈥檝e all been in the trenches together for 10 years, and fought some pretty tough battles, and everybody had each other鈥檚 back during that time, and we鈥檙e not going anywhere now.鈥 You could tell that the journey and the experiences that we have had together have really kept everybody together and will keep them together in the future. It wasn鈥檛 a job. It was more than that.
Q: What about the Obamas? Are they friends for life? Will you stay in touch?
A:听They鈥檙e friends for life. And that was one of the things that they made very clear to all of us. The President said, 鈥淵ou guys are my family. And we鈥檒l be in touch. We need a vacation first, but we鈥檒l be in touch.鈥 Everybody is so philosophically aligned and energized and motivated and inspired by this president, I have no doubt that we all will stay in touch.
Q: What about you? What鈥檚 your next move?
A:听I am going to take some time off and figure it out. I鈥檝e been going at a crazy pace for almost 11 years, and I鈥檓 not going to do anybody any good coming straight into another job. I have a couple of job prospects in New York and some other places, so I鈥檓 going to look at those. It鈥檚 been an amazing journey, and I really haven鈥檛 had an opportunity to step back and take it all in.
Q: Looking back, do you have any feelings about what you accomplished? Are there things you can point to that stand out as special?
A:听We had the mandate of making [the White House] the people鈥檚 house, and I feel like we accomplished that. That is really something that I鈥檓 proud of. Over the last eight years, we got over 4.5 million people through the White House, just out of my office alone. And you don鈥檛 just open the doors and they come in. You handle the logistics and the security and the communication and the guest experience and the troubleshooting for every single one of those 4.5 million people. When I first started, we were receiving tour requests via fax, and by the time I left, we were up on the cloud. And with that comes an incredible efficiency. When I first started, 2 percent of all tours requested were getting approved. And when I left it was 47 percent.
Q: You got a degree in communications from 快活app in 1990. Were you thinking about working in campaigns while you were pursuing your BA, or were you thinking that far ahead?
A:听I was looking at going into radio and television, so that was where my head was. Then my father ran for Congress, so I went to work on his campaign and helped with the communications aspect. That definitely piqued my interest and got me going. I worked on campaigns all over the country, then I landed in San Francisco doing a campaign out there. I loved it, got very involved, worked for a bunch of different candidates, worked for a bunch of different initiatives, and then I worked for Barack Obama. That鈥檚 when I said, 鈥淚鈥檓 all in. This is the guy. Whatever I have to do, I鈥檓 going to do.鈥 Once you get that right thing, whether it鈥檚 a company or a product, or in my case, a candidate, it just ignites something inside of you. It鈥檚 a great feeling, that ability to make a difference in people鈥檚 lives and to change things. It鈥檚 pretty awesome.