Betsaida Alcantara ’05: From Outreach to High Office

Back in high school, when Betsaida Alcantara was considering college applications, her counselor told her Bard was “too out of reach.” But she applied anyway, and got accepted. Recently, a friend joked that when Alcantara, director of media planning for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, was traveling on Air Force One earlier this year, she should have called that counselor from the plane. The anecdote was well received by her audience of Clemente Course in the Humanities graduates, to whom she gave this year’s commencement address.

Alcantara, 31, has come a long way since arriving in the United States at age 10 with her parents, neither of whom spoke English, from the Dominican Republic. From involvement in community outreach, she went on to join the press teams for Senators Robert Menendez and Charles Schumer, and the Obama presidential campaign; high-level communications positions at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), General Services Administration (GSA), and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); and now, handling communications for a presidential candidate. She credits her remarkable rise to a combination of openness, a hunger for knowledge, good mentoring, and her Bard education. “It’s been an incredible journey and I still haven’t processed it all,” she says. “Bard taught me how to think critically, write, and be creative—three important skills for a successful career in media, politics, and communications.”

She says leaving HUD was not an easy decision. “Secretary Julián Castro is a rising star in the Democratic Party,” she says. “I went to HUD because I wanted to get back to a mission, and you can’t find a more fundamental mission than having a roof over your head.” Castro (touted as a possible running mate to Clinton) had just arrived in Washington from being mayor of San Antonio, and Alcantara wanted to help him acclimatize. But less than a year into the job, the Clinton office called her. “They saw my work at EPA, GSA, and HUD and thought I was a very creative communicator. I was flattered and torn.” She listed pros and cons: The pros—“I’m young, I don’t have children, I should do it while I can”—won.

Betsaida Alcantara HUD Photography

Alcantara has always been a community and political activist. Her father is a labor organizer who mobilized migrant farmworkers in New York State 20 years ago, and started one of the first migrant labor organizations. She chose Bard because of its political activism. “I remember U.S. News & World Report ranked Bard near the top for political activism. I knew people from Bard who were involved with migrant farm work advocacy, so it was a natural connection.”

She studied political science with Omar Encarnación, professor of political studies, as Senior Project adviser. After graduating, she worked for the Worker Justice Center of New York. When Bard’s Career Development Office called and suggested she apply for a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Public Policy Fellowship in Washington D.C., she went for it, and within months, was working for both Menendez, one of the few Hispanic senators in Congress, and Schumer as a policy fellow. It was doubly gratifying that the senators were fighting for the immigration reform bill, one of her core interests. “Our family came to this country legally, but I saw the struggle of undocumented people.

In 2008, she joined the Obama campaign as deputy press secretary in Florida and bilingual spokesperson. She describes it as “communications boot camp. But I was young and hungry to learn. And I learned that elections matter.”

The following year she became deputy press secretary for the EPA, dealing with such issues as 2010’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill. “The EPA is one of the most vilified agencies, so from a communications standpoint it was extremely challenging, but also incredibly rewarding,” she says. She was promoted to press secretary, and worked on climate change, the first national program for fuel-economy standards for vehicles, and greenhouse gas emissions. “These were proposals that could change the course of a country, and that to me was incredibly exciting.” The position also offered her first crossover role, in which she was addressing the general population as well as the Hispanic audience. One task was to get out public health and environmental messages and engage more people. So she arranged for EPA Director Lisa Jackson, the first African American to head that agency, to appear in Oprah Magazine and on The Dr. Oz Show, appealing directly to moms.

In 2012, she accepted the position of communications director at GSA. It was a controversial time: the organization was embroiled in scandal following high-level firings over misspent taxpayer dollars. Friends questioned her choice. But, she points out, “We had a mandate from the president saying, ‘You are the new leadership of GSA, turn the ship around.’” It was her first management role. She was in charge of 100 people, with an annual budget of around $10 million. And she started by arranging a series of high profile interviews for the GSA director, such as with CNN and the New York Times.

To expand her career options, she applied for a six-month President’s Leadership Workshop at the White House. She was one of only 20 accepted out of thousands. As soon as she heard Castro was moving to HUD, she told the White House she wanted to be his communications director. “Two days later I was in his office talking to him. That’s how quickly it moved.” Alcantara says she had a great time at HUD, and planned to stay longer, until the Clinton campaign came calling.

For Clinton, she’s working on strategic planning, centered on the candidate herself, organizing interviews and media events. “There’s so much noise out there it’s hard to get the message out,” she says. “How do you let people know about her criminal justice reform initiative? Or that she's proposing a huge college assistance program? It’s a tough job, but I like challenges and I want to make sure Hillary wins.”

Post Date: 09-01-2015