Over the past 19 years, Susannah Wellford has founded two organizations designed to raise the political voice of young women in America.

In spring 2007, Susannah founded Running Start to inspire young women to political leadership. Running Start has trained over 15,000 young women to lead from all around the country. Running Start furthers the work begun by the Women Under Forty Political Action Committee, which she cofounded in 1999 and led for five years. WUFPAC is a national women’s group dedicated to electing young women to political office. A nonpartisan organization, WUFPAC is the only political action committee in the United States devoted to helping young women of all parties run for elected office.

Susannah speaks to colleges, law schools, political groups and nonprofits about the importance of inspiring more young women to lead in politics. She also meets regularly with groups from around the world including most recently Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Ukraine. She was invited to Kuwait by the Kuwaiti government in spring 2006 to meet Kuwait’s first women candidates and to advise them on their campaigns, and has been sent by the State Department to speak in the Ukraine, the Maldives, Algeria, Sri Lanka, Israel, Belgium and Russia.

After receiving her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1998, she worked for several years at Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, lobbying for state and local governments, foreign governments, corporate entities and trade associations before Congress and the Executive Branch.

Prior to law school, Susannah worked for Hillary Clinton’s Health Care Task Force in the Clinton White House. She is also a former Legislative Assistant for Senator Wyche Fowler from Georgia.

Ms. Wellford is a 1990 graduate of Davidson College. She serves on the Boards of FairVote and Representation 2020. She lives in Washington, DC and has twin sons, Ben and James.