Hollie Russon-Gilman ’04, a lecturer and postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University, recently spoke to Middle and Upper School students on “Civic Innovation in a Democratic Crisis.” She shared insights about skill sets that she developed during her Spence years that have helped her education and career.

 

In addition to teaching a class on technology and the future of governance and public policy, Gilman, Ph.D., M.A., is the founding researcher and organizer for the Open Society Foundation’s Transparency and Accountability Initiative and Harvard’s Gettysburg Project, and she served in the Obama White House. She also authored Democracy Reinvented: Participatory Budgeting and Civic Innovation and America and is working on another book on the crisis of democracy in the United States.

 

“Hollie is everywhere, but today she’s home,” Head of School Bodie Brizendine said in her introduction of the Spence Perspectives speaker. “We’re happy to have her back here behind the Red Doors, and we’re honored to have her effervescent and wonderful self back.”

 

One of the themes of Gilman’s talk was how failure and rejection allowed for great opportunities she had not yet considered. Beginning at Spence, when she didn’t make the cast of the Grade 8 play, she instead focused her efforts on speech class, taught by drama teacher Mr. Stuart.

 

“This is a skill I use all the time, and when I give public talks, I often think, ‘What would Mr. Stuart say and how should I start my speech?’” she said.

 

For Gilman, Spence was a “petri dish” where she felt comfortable enough to be creative, ask dumb questions and take risks. She said her experiences here provided the foundation and fodder for her efforts to engage citizens in democracy and make the government work better with today’s tools and technology. At Spence, Gilman particularly loved history classes and literature classes with Mary Frosch. She also resurrected Model Congress with her friend Zoe Bibb ’04. And she worked with the Head of School to invite their textbook author for a Teach-In on the Iraq war.

 

“Did it stop us from invading Iraq? No, but I learned so much,” Gilman said. “And I learned that if I organized and was passionate and if I engaged outside expertise, we could think about something in a new way. That has always stuck with me.”

 

In her senior year, Gilman had her heart set on Brown University but was rejected. At the suggestion of Director of College Counseling Dana Boocock Crowell, Gilman applied to the University of Chicago and ended up loving her experience there.

 

Then after graduating with a degree in political science, Gilman was unsure of her next step; she was sure her life was “falling off the rails” until she received a call from the Obama campaign, offering her a field organizer job in either Chicago or rural New Hampshire. She headed to New Hampshire, where she was the second staffer in the office and was in charge of thousands of people in a conservative-leaning area.

 

Her next aspiration was obtaining her Ph.D., but Gilman was crestfallen again by 10 graduate program rejections. After writing to her favorite professor about her woes, Gilman learned that afternoon that she had been accepted at Harvard.

 

“If you girls can learn to be okay with rejection, you will have a lot of new opportunities that emerge for you,” Gilman said.

 

Since graduate school, Gilman’s focus has included democratic innovation, technology and governance and public participation. She has examined participatory budgeting in particular, which flips the model of representational democracy and instead puts power into the hands of voters to decide how they want their money allocated.

 

Gilman advised students to find the things they are passionate about and to recognize the unique opportunities they have at Spence and in New York City. She encouraged them to get outside the Red Doors, talk with people who are different from them, explore different parts of the City and ask tough questions. She quoted Clara Spence, who once said, “My dear girls, face life with courage and earnestness and sincerity of purpose. Never allow yourself to lose zest in the splendid struggle of life.”

 

“There are so many big, hairy complex challenges right now, and you girls could all be the ones who solve them,” Gilman said.

 

During the Q&A, several students were interested in Gilman’s advice for how to bring about change.

 

She suggested they look for the “hooks and levers” of change and to recognize that sometimes it takes the long game (sometimes decadeslong) to effect change. She also mentioned an idea from Hahrie Han that society needs to invest in leaders, not just people who turn out for a day of service, or letter writing or a protest. She encouraged students to cultivate leadership skills so they can be sustained in their reform efforts.

 

One student asked if she thought Spence helped contribute to Gilman’s confidence.

 

“Absolutely. All along the way, Spence has inspired me to want to ask big questions and push the envelope and to feel confident with the foundation of great friends and great teachers here so that I can take some risks,” Gilman said. “It really was a big factor for me and continues to be.”