ALUMNI/AE
CARLY MCWILLIAMS ’05
Science, Public Service, and the Power of Policy A Foundation Built on Relationships Carly McWilliams ’05 remembers choosing Hamilton College because it felt familiar. “It reminded me a lot of Millbrook, so I knew I would be comfortable there,” she says. That sense of fit launched her on a path defined by exploration and purpose and rooted in relationships. Her academic interests ranged from communications to art history to education, and a study-abroad semester in Ireland
A series of internships during college shaped Carly’s understanding of what she didn’t want to pursue—fashion, for example. Fellow Millbrook alum and faculty child Holly (Meigs) Noone ’94 got Carly in the door for a fast-paced internship at Tory Burch while the company was exploding with growth. She thought the experience was interesting and cool but easily ruled out fashion and opened her to new experiences. That clarity was a gift: “The process of
her first year broadened her perspective in unexpected ways. “I had
elimination is a lot easier than figuring out exactly what you do
a really great group of 30 kids with me—it was a unique way to
want to do.”
start college.”
It was during an internship at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minnesota with Arthur Anthony ’07—thanks to another Millbrook connection, Gordon Pennoyer ’99—that Carly found her calling in operations and a taste for U.S. politics. “I loved it. It got me into politics in the sense that I met people working in government. It was completely serendipitous that I ended up working for the convention’s head of operations based on the fact that I was the only intern old enough to drive him around.”
A Capitol Hill Career: From Clerk to Senior Counselor After graduating from Hamilton, Carly followed her instincts to Washington, D.C., where she secured an unpaid internship and worked retail on the side for another Millbrook alum, Bill Menard ’78. But she knew she wanted to be working in government, and by 2011, she was working on Capitol Hill as a legislative clerk for the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “It’s one of the oldest committees on the Hill, with the broadest jurisdiction,” she explains. To understand the scope of the committee’s work, “One of the chairmen used to say, ‘If it moves, it’s energy. If it doesn’t, it’s commerce.’”
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• SPRING 2025