Gracia Hillman
Encyclopedia
Election Assistance Commission
The Election Assistance Commission is an independent agency of the United States government created by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 . The Commission serves as a national clearinghouse and resource of information regarding election administration...
from 2003 to 2010. She was nominated by President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
on October 3, 2003 and confirmed by unanimous consent of the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
on December 9, 2003 to serve a two-year term on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). Ms. Hillman served as Chair of the EAC in 2005, after serving as the Agency's first Vice Chair in 2004. She resigned on December 10, 2010 after reaching the two-term limit for commissioners.
In her career, Commissioner Hillman has handled both domestic and international issues. Her areas of expertise include nonprofit management, public policy and program development, political services, the interests and rights of women and minorities, community affairs and election related matters, including voting rights.
She has traveled extensively throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
meeting with national and local groups and businesses; speaking at conferences, conventions and other public forums; and conducting a variety of training and development seminars. Through her international work, Commissioner Hillman traveled in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. She conducted nonpartisan
Nonpartisan
In political science, nonpartisan denotes an election, event, organization or person in which there is no formally declared association with a political party affiliation....
political training in Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
and Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, and participated in UN sponsored conferences in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
and at the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Prior to 2003, Ms. Hillman served as President and CEO of WorldSpace Foundation, a nonprofit organization that uses cutting edge digital satellite technology to deliver audio and multimedia education programs to Africa and Asia. Ms. Hillman also served the U.S. Department of State as its first Senior Coordinator for International Women’s Issues where she was responsible for developing agency-wide strategies to ensure that U.S. foreign policy promoted and protected women’s rights. She was the State Department’s principal liaison with domestic nongovernmental organizations that are concerned with international women’s rights and the role of women in development
Women in Development
Women in Development is an approach to development projects that emerged in the 1970s, calling for treatment of women's issues in development projects...
. In 1995, Ms. Hillman was a member of the official U.S. delegation to the United Nation’s Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing.
Her work experience includes having served as Executive Director of the League of Women Voters
League of Women Voters
The League of Women Voters is an American political organization founded in 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt during the last meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote...
of the U.S., the Congressional Black Caucus
Congressional Black Caucus
The Congressional Black Caucus is an organization representing the black members of the United States Congress. Membership is exclusive to blacks, and its chair in the 112th Congress is Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri.-Aims:...
Foundation and the National Coalition on Black Voter Participation, which sponsored the popular nonpartisan grassroots program, Operation Big Vote. She also held positions as Executive Consultant to the Council on Foundations and Coordinator of the Voter Law Policy Project for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
Throughout the 1980s, Ms. Hillman championed many nonpartisan and bi-partisan efforts to ensure open access to the voting process for all citizens and the continued voting rights of minority Americans, including her work on the historic 25 year extension of the national Voting Rights Act
Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S....
. Her political experiences include paid and volunteer work on numerous local, state-wide and national campaigns, including having served as a Senior Advisor with responsibility for Congressional and constituent relations for the 1988 Dukakis
Michael Dukakis
Michael Stanley Dukakis served as the 65th and 67th Governor of Massachusetts from 1975–1979 and from 1983–1991, and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988. He was born to Greek immigrants in Brookline, Massachusetts, also the birthplace of John F. Kennedy, and was the longest serving...
for President Campaign.
Ms. Hillman began her longtime commitment to public service and the nonprofit sector in 1970, when she worked for a community action program in her home state of Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. She also held management positions in Massachusetts State government. She has served on the boards and advisory committees of numerous local and national organizations concerned with public service, citizen participation and the development of public policy. Ms. Hillman has one son and currently resides in Washington, DC.