The biggest challenge Tara Rountree ’11 has endured in three years as a chief of staff in Congress wasn’t a government shutdown or media controversy.
It was the death of her boss, U.S. Rep. Donald McEachin (D-Va.), in November 2022. She learned about it at a staff retreat that McEachin had been expected to attend, though he was facing complications from his treatment for cancer in 2013.
“I had to tell them at dinner,” she said. “I had worked for him for seven years. He was a friend. It was the hardest thing I’d ever dealt with in my life.”
She and her staff of 16 continued performing constituent services during the interim. “There wasn’t a lot of time to process,” Rountree said.
In February 2023, Jennifer McClellan, a Democratic state senator, was elected to the 4th District seat, which extends from Richmond to the North Carolina border. McClellan, who became the first Black woman from Virginia in Congress, asked Rountree to stay on.
“I’m carving out a niche for her,” Rountree said, “and trying to find ways for her to stand out” as the most junior member of the minority party in the House.
McClellan and McEachin “care a lot about the same things – healthcare, the environment and education,” Rountree said. “But she has little kids. That’s a new dynamic for me, scheduling her in a way that respects her life as a mother.”
Rountree’s multiple responsibilities include managing the staff, setting the strategy for legislation, constituent services and communications and serving as McClellan’s top adviser and confidante. “I’m also making sure she is who she wants to be. Maybe she saw an article and says, ‘Can we do something about this?’”
She is proud of “getting all of our community projects funded two years in a row with no issues.” The office also was a finalist in 2022 for the Congressional Management Foundation’s workplace environment award.
“Tara leads with compassion and humor, and she has helped cultivate an inclusive and constructive work environment where my staff feels supported and valued,” McClellan said.
Rountree credits her easy transition to Washington partly to her student internships with U.S. Sen. Mark Warner and then-state Sen. Ralph Northam. At Old Dominion University, “I felt super-supported,” said Rountree, who majored in political science.
She also speaks positively of her Capitol Hill colleagues. “The people in Washington get a bad rap. They are genuine public servants and are here for the right reasons.”