Lissa is co-owner of Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C. Before acquiring the store with her husband in June 2011, she had spent her professional career in journalism, politics, and government. Most recently, she served in the Obama Administration as director of speechwriting and senior advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. A longtime speechwriter and staff member of Mrs. Clinton, Lissa worked as a senior advisor on the 2008 Clinton presidential campaign and was co-collaborator on then-Senator Clinton’s White House memoir, Living History. During the Clinton Administration, Lissa served as a presidential speechwriter, chief speechwriter to the First Lady, and as deputy assistant to the president and director of communications to the First Lady. Prior to serving in government, she spent nearly 15 years as a journalist, beginning her career at the Delta Democrat-Times in Greenville, Mississippi, before joining The Washington Star and then The Washington Post, where she was a reporter and editor covering beats from politics to sports. She has contributed commentary pieces to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, various magazines, and PunditWire.com, as well as the Politics and Prose website. She has received several journalism awards and is a frequent lecturer at area universities. She was profiled in Tom Brokaw’s book about the 1960s, Boom! Lissa has served on the boards of the Women’s Sports Foundation, the Association of American Rhodes Scholars, and Imagination Stage. She is also on the advisory board of the School for Ethics and Global Leadership in Washington, D.C., and teaches a weeklong course there each semester in political communication. A native of Berkeley, California, she graduated from Harvard University, where she was captain of the women’s varsity tennis team and a student leader advocating for the implementation of Title IX. Lissa was among 13 American women awarded Rhodes Scholarships in 1977—the first year women could apply. At Oxford, she studied contemporary European politics. Lissa is married to Bradley Graham, a journalist and author and now co-owner of Politics and Prose. They have three children—Wynne Graham ’12, Cole Graham ’12, and Max Graham ’16—and reside in Bethesda, Maryland.