Taking Bold Career Risks with Patti Solis Doyle ’90

HELEN KIM: Welcome to Northwestern Intersections, where we talk to alumni about how key experiences have propelled them in their life's work. I'm Helen Kim from the Northwestern Alumni Association. And in commemoration of Women's History Month, we're featuring alumni trailblazers to celebrate the achievements and aspirations of Northwestern women around the world.

You'll discover how these women are making an impact in their fields, advancing gender equality and social justice, and pushing the boundaries of the possible. Today, we have Patti Solis Doyle, a partner at Brunswick Group, a former CNN political commentator, and presidential campaign advisor. Patti has been honored with a Latinas of Excellence award by Hispanic magazine for her accomplishments in the area of government, politics, and civil leadership, and also was named as one of America's 100 most influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business magazine.

In this episode, Patti shares her unconventional start to her undergraduate journey at Northwestern and the story behind how taking a bold career risk to follow her passion actually led to her big break in the world of politics. Let's take a listen. Let's hear your Northwestern story. So what do you remember from Northwestern? How did you end up going there? Tell us all about it.

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE: Well, OK. So I have to start-- I have to answer that question by starting at the very beginning of my life. I am the very proud daughter of Mexican immigrants. And my parents immigrated to Chicago in 1954.

It's a common immigrant story. They moved to Chicago to get a better life for their kids than the one that they had growing up in Mexico. And they came, and they worked hard. And they raised six kids. And I love them deeply.

But they were very much traditional Mexican parents, who wanted a very traditional Mexican daughter. And as such, I was supposed to, after I graduated from high school, I was supposed to get married and have kids. And college was not something that they ever really thought about for me, not just because they didn't have the money, which they didn't, but because that's not what girls were supposed to do as far as they were concerned.

So it was my oldest brother who talked to them and said, listen, she's doing really well in school. And she has the potential to get into a good college. And who knows where she could go from there. It was a real fight. But eventually, they allowed me to apply to just local schools.

So I applied to Northwestern, and I got in. And I got a full ride, which was incredible. So the financial burden wasn't really on my parents. And so I was allowed to go.

And when I first got there, it really was a foreign place to me. I had grown up relatively poor on the south side of Chicago in an area called Pilsen. And the affluence and the people from all over the world there, it was just it was a foreign land to me. And it took me a while to really assimilate, I guess, is the word.

You know, I didn't have a lot of freedom growing up as a kid. Basically, my job was to go to school and help around the house. And so I didn't really go out much as a kid. I didn't have a lot of friends. And so the freedom that Northwestern allowed me to meet people and be my own boss, so to speak, and create my own schedule.

And so I took advantage of that. I might have partied a little bit too much. And in my sophomore year, I got kicked out. I got on academic probation. I lost my scholarship. And it was a real, real, rude awakening. So after some soul searching and a realization that I really blew an incredible opportunity, I decided to pick myself up and dust myself off and go back to night school.

Because I lost my scholarship, I needed to get a job and work during the day. And I went to school at night. And I was lucky enough Northwestern Law School in the city gave me a job in the admissions office as a secretary. And by taking that job, tuition was half the cost. So I was really able to get back to school and get back on track.

And I eventually graduated. It took me three years longer. It took me seven years to graduate. But I eventually graduated. And I have to tell you, that experience really made me value my degree and really value the education and really value the opportunities that Northwestern gave me more than if I had just gone and succeeded and graduated at the top of my class, I think.

HELEN KIM: You know what I love about your story? I think a lot of people assume that your undergrad years in college, it's just a smooth ride of four years of studying and trying to do extracurricular activities and then, bam, you get your diploma. No, it's not that. There will always be parts where people don't share about the brutal side of just attending a college. And I love that you were also able to get a job and be able to go to night school and finish the degree that you so deserve. So what did you end of studying?

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE: So I studied-- I majored in communications with a minor in film. I decided early on that I wanted to be a network broadcaster. I wanted to deliver the news. Upon graduation, though, I took work where I could get it. And I got a job on a local campaign.

City of Chicago was my race. I worked for Rich Daley. And I just-- I loved it. I loved the adrenaline of a campaign. I worked 20 hours a day, I felt like. I did, actually. But it was so much fun.

No day was like any other day. There was always new challenges and new hurdles. And it was a competition. And I'm a very competitive person by nature.

And if you won enough days in sequence, you won the week. And if you won the week, maybe you'd win the month. And if you won the month, then maybe you'd win the actual election. And I just found it riveting.

And what was different about that campaign from Northwestern was, at Northwestern, I really didn't find a lot of people like me, whose first language wasn't English, who had immigrant parents, who grew up poor, who struggled. But in the campaign, there were a lot of people like me. Maybe not necessarily Mexican, but African-American and Asian and people who didn't have the ideal life growing up. Although, I do feel like I had an ideal life. I never really understood that I didn't have things that other people had, because we had such a tight knit family.

But I just love the campaign so much. And when Rich Daley won that race, they offered me a job at city hall, which I took. And it was a great job. But it was so boring compared to what I was doing.

And one day, the person who was running Rich Daley's campaign came to me and said, hey, I'm going to go to a presidential race in Arkansas for the governor there, who's going to run for president. Do you want to come? Do you want to come help me?

And I had no idea who the governor of Arkansas was. But I knew that I wanted to work on a presidential campaign. So I said, sure. And then, of course, I did some research. And it turned out to be Bill Clinton. And I had no idea who he was or whether or not he'd be a good president or what his chances were. Well, I did know what his chances were, slim to none.

But I just wanted the experience. So I got on a plane. And two years later, he was elected president of the United States. And what do you know? So what that experience taught me is it's always a good thing to take risks, it really is. You have to follow your passion. And if you do that, good things will come, you know?

HELEN KIM: So it sounds like you thrive in environments that are extremely fast paced, no day is the same. And I think that's what really helped you to enjoy being in presidential campaigns. And that's kind of where your career kind of started off. So I really want to hear more about all the presidential campaigns, or any more political campaigns you were a huge part of.

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE: Yeah. So I have to start there, because that's where I met my mentor, my shero, so to speak. So I got on a plane to Arkansas. And you know, again, my parents were like, are you nuts? How could you possibly leave a great job at city hall with great benefits to go work for some guy that nobody ever heard of? What are you doing?

They were just so pissed at me. But I said, you know, I'm just going to try it. So I get on a plane, I land in Arkansas, and it just so happened that the governor's wife at the time was, I need help. I need somebody that can be on my staff.

So the campaign manager said, I have this great girl from Chicago who is going to be your person. I had no idea. So I landed, I get to headquarters. And David, the campaign manager, says to me, drop your bags off. You got to go to the governor's mansion. You got to meet Hillary. She's the governor's wife. You're going to work for her.

And I was so incredibly disappointed. You know, I wanted to be where the action was, right? I wanted to work for the candidate. I wanted to learn. And I just thought, who wants to work for the wife? The wife doesn't do anything except stand by her man, stand next to him.

So I go to the governor's mansion, because I was told to. And I was low man on the totem pole. So I went, and I was just blown away by Hillary Clinton. She was beautiful. And she was brilliant.

And the very first thing she said to me was, I know you're new, and you have no idea what you're doing. And I have no idea what I'm doing. I've never done this before. So we're going to figure it out together.

But the most important thing to me is Chelsea, our daughter. Here's her schedule. Here's her soccer schedule and her recital schedule. And I need to be home for these things.

And I can't be gone the same night, Bill, my husband, is gone, because she's our first priority. I'm like, OK. I can work with this. She's not only beautiful and brilliant, like, she was the top 100 lawyers. But she is a good mom.

So we get along, and we helped each other. I mean, she sort of hit the nail on the head in that very first meeting. We were going to figure it out together, and we did.

So when Bill Clinton, her husband, won, she hired me immediately to be on her staff in the White House, and said, let's just keep learning together on how to do this. So I spent eight years working in the Clinton administration, working for her. I took a sabbatical to help run her Senate race.

She was the first first lady to ever run for public office. And because of my background in campaigns, and I knew her really well, and I knew her politics really well, she asked me to move to New York to help run that race. And we won. And then after that, I really basically ran her political life, so her PAC, her re-election, until she ran for president in '08. And I ran a presidential campaign.

And that was really a fascinating campaign, because she was the first credible woman candidate ever to run for the presidency. And by credible, I mean the first woman to ever run, who had a real shot at winning. Obviously other women had run prior to her.

But she was a front-runner. And she had significant political backing and significant fundraising ability and was a real experienced politician. But despite all those advantages, we had a hell of a time getting over that hurdle of the first woman commander in chief. The electorate was just not quite there yet, was not comfortable with that notion.

And later in that race, near the end of the primary when it was just Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, those were the two left standing in that primary field. It was thrilling to work on that campaign, because at that point, near the end of the primary, you saw the two of them standing side by side. And you knew we were on the precipice of either electing the first woman president of the United States or the first African-American president of the United States. And regardless, history was going to be made.

HELEN KIM: Yeah, I mean, we finally have a female vice president in the White House. And that's such a big progress that we made, right? But there's so much more that can be made. And yes, I also hope that one day we'll have a female president.

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE: Right. Right, I'm thrilled about it. I mean, I can't even explain how real I am that we have a female vice president, a woman of color to boot. I think it's fantastic. And it's so representative of who we are as a country. But it's still, I guess, it still annoys me that she had to be appointed rather than elected. Biden had to pick her.

I said this throughout the 2008 campaign. Women have to be smarter and work twice as hard as their male counterpart to get half the credit. And that was so true in both her races, in her presidential race and in her Senate race. She just had to be better, and she had to be smarter to be even on an equal playing field with her male counterparts. And that's a lot of work, and it's not fair. And there is just a double standard, I think, when it comes to female candidates.

HELEN KIM: Absolutely. And as much as we would like to think that the world is thinking more progressively, women still face inequality, especially in the workforce. And we're trying to break away from the standard set by society when it comes to gender pay gap, especially for women of color, and representation and pregnancy discrimination. So as a strong female and a role model yourself, what advice would you offer to women who want to reach that executive level, who are trying to overcome these obstacles that the society has set, that is setting them back from advancing in their careers.

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE: So a big part of what I did, prior to COVID hitting, was I spent a great deal of time traveling across the country, speaking to young women at colleges and universities, mostly about women in politics, but also about women in leadership roles. And every time, I would get asked, how do I do what you did? Whether it's a leadership role in politics or a leadership role in business or a leadership role in science, how, as a young woman, do I get there?

And my answer, every single time, is to just do it, to find, first of all, find what drives you. Find what you're passionate about. Find what you love, because if you're passionate and you love it, you are going to excel in it. It's just easier that way.

And two, once you find it, go do it. So if it's politics, I would always tell these young women, find a local campaign near you, and go knock on the door. And offer to do anything. Offer to answer the phones. Offer to go get coffee. Offer to knock on doors, or offer to do mailers.

Whatever it is they need, offer to do it. And offer to do it for free, so that they can't say no to you. And while you're there, just open your eyes and open your ears, and learn as much about the actual business of what you're passionate about is like. And then do it, whether that's running for office yourself or becoming a campaign manager or becoming a pollster or becoming an ad maker. Whatever it is that drives you about your specific industry, go learn about it, research it, study it, go to school for it, and do it.

And then, unfortunately, you're going to have to work twice as hard and be twice as good in order to get at an equal level of your male counterpart. But if that's what you got to do, then that's what you have to do. And it's not until more and more and more and more women just do it, it's only then that it will be unremarkable to see a woman run for office or unremarkable to see a woman as a CEO or unremarkable to see a woman win the Nobel Peace Prize. You just have to do it and not be hindered or intimidated by others who tell you you can't do it.

HELEN KIM: And that's what you did, right? When you had that job at the city hall, and you just dropped it and left and went to work for a campaign of somebody that you never heard of.

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE: That's right, that's right. Because I knew I loved campaigns. I had no idea what I was in for, but I knew I loved campaigns. And I wanted to learn more. And I wanted to see if this was truly going to be my passion and my career. So I pursued it.

And lo and behold, with a lot of work, I did work harder than a lot of people on that campaign. I worked 20 hours a day. I remember Hillary, I would be working all day at headquarters getting schedule done, getting the briefing book done, doing correspondence. And then I would wake up and actually load Hillary's plane.

And she would see me as she drove up, she's like, did you load the plane? I'm like, yeah, somebody had to do it. So I did it. And again, I made an impression. So you just have to-- you just have to do it.

HELEN KIM: And to kind of follow up on the previous question, I know that you also speak regularly on the rise of women and minorities in politics, campaigns and issues affecting Hispanic Americans. What are some issues that you got to talk about and just share with us what some of the things that you got to work on.

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE: As I mentioned early in this podcast, I'm the daughter of Mexican immigrants. So obviously, the issue of immigration and how people of color are seen in this country has a real impact on me. My father immigrated twice, illegally, to Chicago, and was deported twice.

He did it without my mom, because he wanted to get settled first, before he brought my mom and my four brothers and sisters over from Mexico. So I was the only one born in the States. The third time he did it, his papers finally came through. And so he did it legally.

He worked in the States for a year before he could afford to bring my mom and my brothers and sisters over. He worked three jobs when he was here. My mother worked two. He raised six kids. He, in the end, had his own home that he paid for. His entire life, he did make more than $18,000 a year. But he paid his credit cards on time in full every month.

He, on voting day, he was the first person at the polls. He woke up extra early to get there right at 6:00 when they opened so he can vote. He was just extremely patriotic and diligent and hardworking.

So given my father's and my mother's history, certainly, the way immigrants, but all people of color, the way they're treated in this country is an issue that really affects me. And so I, particularly in the Trump administration on the zero tolerance policy that they enforce during his first term or his only term, that one hit me hard. And so I spent a lot of time, again, traveling the country and talking to audiences about the implications of the immigration policies and how it affects our country and how it affects business, and that something has to be done, obviously, with the 13 million illegal or non-documented immigrants in this country.

But to try and deport them all, first of all, can't be done. But more importantly, they're part of our economy. And they're part of our culture and our society. And we need to, yes, they came here illegally. And so there needs to be some sort of repercussion for that.

But they're here, and we need to make them a working part of our society, because that's not only good for them, it's good for us. And it's good for our country. So that's an issue that's very near and dear to my heart, because were it not for a welcoming country. I wouldn't be here. I would not have had the career that I had, and I wouldn't have the values that I have. And I just think we're cutting our nose despite our face with these very harsh policies towards immigrants.

HELEN KIM: Yeah, it's extremely painful to hear stories of how America is not welcoming. And it just pains me. It pains me a lot to hear that, and that it basically destroys so many people's lives, so many families torn apart because of that. And it's just unthinkable. And what a beautiful story of your father.

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE: Thank you. Well, I think about him and his story. And I think there, but for the grace of God, go I. If he had come illegally and then had been caught, and we had come with him, it just devastates me when I think of these families who are being torn apart.

HELEN KIM: And I wish for a better country, better policies for this, really looking forward to it. But Patti, you've done so much. You've been in many environments that were very new to you. But you just immediately went for it, adapted so quickly. And you just outshined everybody else.

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE: I wouldn't go that far. I've had a really interesting career. I had the opportunity to not only work for Hillary, but when she lost that primary in 2008, I went on to work for Barack Obama in the general election in 2008. And there, got the opportunity to work for Joe Biden as his chief of staff when he got the VP nomination.

And I've had a front row seat to history. And I've had the real privilege and honor to work with some of the smartest people in government and politics. And I know I'm really lucky that I really think, while luck had a great deal to do with that, I do think and I said this before, and I will say it to my grave, is once you know what you love to do, put all your energies towards that. And go for it.

What do you have to lose? I mean, so maybe you don't succeed, or maybe you're not the campaign manager, or maybe you're the deputy campaign manager. Just throw yourself at it. And no regrets. You won't have any regrets if you follow your passion. I firmly believe that.

HELEN KIM : What do you consider as one of your biggest accomplishments?

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE: Well, I think my biggest accomplishment is getting 18 million people to vote for a woman for president and having worked on history-making campaigns. But I think, very specifically-- that's a broad accomplishment. But very specifically was, in 1995, Hillary Clinton went to Beijing to the UN Conference of Women to deliver a message that, I mean, when you hear it today, seems very matter of fact and almost quaint. But at the time that she delivered this message, it was quite provocative.

And that message was women's rights are human rights. And human rights are women's rights. And that speech and that message resonated around the globe. And it was so difficult to get her there, because nobody really wanted her to go, except for the women at that conference.

They just thought it was going to be too provocative and too much trouble. And it was going to put a strain on US-China relations. And they just didn't want her to go. So we really had to fight, fight, and fight to get it done.

And the idea that the speech had such an impact, and my role in it, that's my biggest accomplishment. Even though it was a tiny role, she did all the heavy lifting. I just feel very proud of that moment, because it really resonated with women across the globe. And it really-- I feel like it empowered women who felt very much unempowered, alienated from the rest of greater society.

HELEN KIM: So you traveled to so many different states. You've traveled across the globe. Were there any times that you ran into a Northwestern connection or a fellow Northwestern Wildcat?

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE: Oh my god, yes. All the time. Go Cats is my-- yes, so I have traveled to 54 countries. And I have been to every state except for Alaska, I want to say, and Hawaii. I can't say that a Northwestern alum and every country that I've been to. But I have seen the breadth and reach of our alumni everywhere I've gone.

And even in my role now, as a partner at Brunswick Group, which is a consulting group-- we are strategic advisors-- I have to tell you, I got a client, because I was doing a webinar on the importance of the current political climate and how it affects businesses. And in the webinar, I said that I was graduate from Northwestern. And this woman, who is the head of external affairs for Yum!, which is the brand that-- for Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.

She-- well first, she liked what I had to say in the webinar, I guess. But she graduated from Kellogg. So she reached out to me from nowhere and said, oh my god, go Cats. We're both from Northwestern.

So it's a great thing, and it's a great community. And it's something that we all share. But it's also a community where we want to help each other. We're like, oh my god, you went to Northwestern. When did you go? And it's a really important part of my life. And it has been a real asset in my career. And I am very grateful for the opportunity-- all of the opportunities that Northwestern has given me.

HELEN KIM: And as we come to a close, what advice would you like to share with the Northwestern community?

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE: I would say, stay engaged. Stay engaged with the Alumni Association. Stay engaged with your classmates. Stay engaged with your teachers that really meant something to you. Stay engaged, because you never know when you're going to, not need someone, but some you'll find that the alumni can be very helpful to you. And you can be helpful to them.

So I just think it's really important to continue the relationship, not only with the University, but more importantly, with the people that you met there and the people who meant something to you as you navigate, not just your career, but your life, right? So my big advice is, stay engaged. Stay engaged, reach out.

HELEN KIM: Thank you for tuning into today's episode of Northwestern Intersections. For more information about our podcast, please visit northwestern.edu/intersections. Until next time, stay safe, and take care of yourself and your families.