Abbie is the director of The Ascend Fund, a collaborative fund dedicated to accelerating the pace of change towards gender parity in U.S. politics.

Abbie’s career in politics spans more than two decades, during which time she has worked on more than 100 campaigns. She served as speechwriter for Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and as chief of staff to the House Minority Leader of the Kansas Legislature. Prior to joining The Ascend Fund, Abbie worked for The Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, DC, where she was responsible for developing and implementing legislative campaign strategies for a diverse group of public policy priorities across multiple states.

Abbie earned a PhD from the University of Kansas where her dissertation focused on how the number of women in politics could be increased by improving the ways organizations recruit, train, and support women in the process of running for office.