The White House Exit Club

Written by by Guest Contributor Beth Solomon

Before the military marching bands lined up, while most Americans were still sleeping, Judith Ann Stewart Stock, known as “Ann,” tiptoed into the hallowed halls of the White House’s East Wing to start her new job the day after Inauguration Day, 1993. “I got to my office at 6:15 am. There was absolutely no one around, there were no typewriters, the lights were off,” she recalls. Electricity surged through the pant-suited young staffer confronting the silence. “On Day One, I was managing open houses with 4,000 people coming to meet the Clintons and the Gores, another 1500 campaign staffers invited, a last-minute event — the President had invited the campaign band — another open house in another room, and 250 people coming for dinner. I finally got back to my office at 11:30 pm and thought, ‘What have I done? What have I gotten myself into?’”

Top East Wing and West Wing White House staff like Stock (who served in the Carter, Clinton and Obama administrations), Anita McBride (Reagan and both Bush administrations), and Capricia Penavic Marshall (Clinton and Obama administrations), are among the most respected alumna of some of the most desired jobs in Washington — and the world. There’s no school, no training session, no manual you can study to prepare.

“You need to have the ability to make judgement calls very quickly and judge the pros and cons of any decision instantaneously,” Marshall said. “You need to be able to articulate why something is not a good idea in a very measured, convincing, diplomatic way. Your advice will be heeded at the highest levels. And you’re moving at such a fast pace,” said Marshall, author of Protocol: The Power of Diplomacy and How to Make it Work for You (Ecco, 2020). The Ohio native worked for the Bill Clinton presidential campaign, becoming Special Assistant to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, White House Social Secretary, and eventually Chief of Protocol during the Obama administration.

Working 24/7 in some of the most demanding rolls in government, such White House officials must be creative, extremely organized, flexible, and able to perform under extreme pressure — not to mention the unforgiving klieg lights of constant media scrutiny.

They must turn on a dime. “Whatever you planned for the day, it might change. You don’t know what the schedule is going to be,” Stock says. “Just getting your arms around the job takes six months. You’re working with the Usher’s Office to do the events in the House [of Representatives]. You’re working with White House electricians and maintenance men, the waiters, the butlers.” Like a ballet, it all has to look flawless and easy. Which requires extreme dedication, hard work and skill.

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