As part of our “Women on Wednesdays” series, please join the Women & Politics Institute for a virtual conversation with WPI Executive Director Betsy Fischer Martin and former Congresswoman Katie Hill (D-CA), author of the new book, She Will Rise: Becoming a Warrior in the Battle for True Equality, which chronicles her experience with “misogyny and double standards in politics to help women topple the longstanding power structures that prevent them from achieving equality.”

Reflecting on the events that precipitated her resignation from Congress in 2019, Katie Hill details how to “overcome the obstacles holding women back from achieving equal representation in positions of power to create the change we want for the next century for our future.” Interweaving her personal story, She Will Rise is a personal story about “power building power, taking responsibility for mistakes, and moving forward."

Katie Hill is a former member of Congress, representing California’s 25th Congressional District. Elected in 2018 at the age of 31, Hill flipped a Congressional seat under decades of Republican control - she was the first woman to hold the seat, the first openly LGBTQ woman to be elected to Congress from California, and the first self-identified bisexual woman in Congress. She resigned from her position less than a year after entering Congress, following political sabotage by her abusive ex-husband in a scandal that began a national conversation around questions of bisexuality, domestic abuse, cyber exploitation, and workplace power dynamics. Her professional experience includes working as the executive director of the nonprofit organization PATH (People Assisting the Homeless).

Betsy Fischer Martin is an Emmy-winning journalist and former TV news executive. Currently, she is the Executive Director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University and a faculty member in the School of Public Affairs, where she teaches courses on campaigns and elections. During her earlier career in television news, she spent 23 years at NBC News serving as the longtime Executive Producer of Meet the Press with Tim Russert and as the Managing Editor of NBC News Political Programming.

A native of New Orleans, Fischer Martin did her undergraduate and graduate work at American University in Washington, DC. She is a cum laude graduate of their School of Public Affairs and earned a master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from the AU School of Communication.

"Women on Wednesdays": Former Rep. Katie Hill - "She Will Rise," in conversation with Betsy Fischer Martin