Anita McBride served as Assistant to President George W. Bush and Chief of Staff to First Lady Laura Bush from 2005 to 2009.

She directed the staff’s work on the wide variety of issues in which Mrs. Bush was involved -- including education, youth development, women’s rights and health, historic preservation and conservation, the arts, global literacy and global health issues including efforts to end pandemic diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS.

Also under President George W. Bush, Mrs. McBride worked in the State Department as Senior Advisor in the Bureau of International Organizations and as White House Liaison. She also served as Special Assistant to the President for White House Management.

Mrs. McBride’s White House service spans two decades and three administrations. She joined the Reagan Administration in 1984, and from 1987 to 1992, she was Director of White House Personnel under Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush. She also served as Director of the Speakers Bureau at the United States Information Agency in 1992.

Mrs. McBride’s private sector experience includes service in corporate philanthropy and executive recruiting.

Mrs. McBride is a member of the U.S.- Afghan Women’s Council, a historic public-private partnership between the U.S. and Afghan governments, Georgetown University, and private-sector institutions to help Afghanistan’s women rebuild their country and reclaim their place at the center of post-Taliban society.

Mrs. McBride served as a member of the U.S. delegations to the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2002; the UN Commission on Human Rights in 2003; and the UN Special Session on HIV/AIDS in 2006.

Mrs. McBride received her B.A. in International Studies from the University of Connecticut and studied international relations and foreign languages at the University of Florence in Italy and the American University in Washington, DC. She is a recipient of the University of Connecticut’s President’s Award of Distinction and the National Guard and Reserve’s Patriot Award.

In January 2009, she was appointed by President George W. Bush to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board for a term of three years.

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