The Oval Office and The Fourth Estate: A Conversation on Politics and Journalism in the Nation’s Capital
Brandi Hoffine '06 has worked in both the public and private sectors in Washington, D.C. for ten years and has expertise on political communications and strategic messaging. Since August 2014, Hoffine has served as assistant press secretary and spokesperson for the White House where she handles a range of domestic and international policy issues.
Prior to the White House, she was a domestic finance spokesperson for the United States Treasury. She also served as Senator Tim Kaine's communication's director on his successful 2012 campaign for the United States Senate in Virginia. She has also worked in communications and research at the Democratic National Committee, including serving as the deputy national press secretary for the Democratic Party, and in the private sector for Deloitte Consulting.
Originally from Sacramento, Hoffine is a 2006 graduate of Claremont McKenna College.
Michael Shear '90 is the White House correspondent for The New York Times’ Washington bureau where he has worked for the last six years. In this role, he also covered the 2012 presidential campaign. Prior to that, he was a reporter for the Washington Post, where he spent 18 years covering local communities, school districts, state politics, the 2008 presidential campaign, and the first two years of the Obama White House.
A member of the Pulitzer Prize winning team that documented the shootings at the Virginia Tech campus in 2007, Shear is a 1990 graduate of Claremont McKenna College and has a masters in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
View Video: YouTube with Michael Shear '90 and Brandi Hoffine '06
Food for Thought: Podcast with Brandi Hoffine '06
Food for Thought: Podcast with Michael Shear '90