Politically Minded

Molly Brand ’15 spent the summer after her sophomore year as a Cole Scholar working on John Connolly’s campaign for mayor of Boston. The politics major from Sandy Spring, Maryland, was so moved by the experience that she took the next semester off to continue working for the campaign. While his bid was eventually unsuccessful, Brand was hooked. She knew politics was where she wanted to be.

After graduation, that desire led her to GMMB, a Washington D.C.-based communications consulting firm which consults with campaigns as well as issue advocacy work. Brand says she applied for GMMB because one of the founders is an Oberlin alum, Jim Margolis ’79, and because the company shared her values and is known for high quality work. Currently, she works in the media department at GMMB tracking competitive information about political spending on ads. The information she receives helps paint a picture of what is going on before ads actually run and helps the GMMB media buyers make decisions about where they want to place their own ads.

While at Oberlin, Brand participated in College Democrats, Student Senate, Women’s Chorale, and was a member of Harkness and Pyle Co-ops. She says her time at Oberlin taught her about how to connect with different people and ideas. “The way people care so deeply about things at Oberlin was a huge part of my education,” she says.

In the future, Brand says she would like to continue working in politics and take a more active role in shaping the message and policy goals of the campaigns and political leaders she works with.