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Hill Climbers: Page to Intern to Press Secretary

Rosemarie Calabro Tully discovered her passion for energy and environmental issues when she was just 17.

The native of Hyattsville, Md., now the energy press secretary at the Bipartisan Policy Center, interned with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in her senior year of high school and after her freshman year of college. 

But her work with Senate Energy wasn’t her first exposure to life on the Hill. She served as a page after her junior year of high school, during the summer of 2001. 

“That experience as a page exposed me to the process of lawmaking,” she said. “Going to Senate libraries and diving in.”

She forged relationships with her mentors at the committee, which helped her land a job with the panel after she graduated from Georgetown University.

When she finished her bachelor’s in government and Spanish, she rejoined Senate Energy as a staff assistant. She worked there for five years, becoming press and media assistant and then press secretary. 

Working on the press side, she learned how to maintain relationships with reporters and explain technical details of energy and environmental laws to the media. 

“I learned the process of how a bill becomes a law from start to finish,” she said. “And I have a more nuanced appreciation of what goes into every step and how thoughtful the process should be.”

She added that Congress changed greatly from 2007 to 2012, and working within different political environments taught her a great deal about how to work on bipartisan legislation.

Although she wasn’t passionate about energy issues when she began interning, she’s become much more aware of her effect on the environment during the past five years. 

“I have a greater appreciation for my energy use,” she said. “I turn off all the lights and flick off all the power strips before I go to bed, and I’ve gotten my family to recycle.”

At BPC she will develop media strategy and write press releases for the group’s 2013 Energy Project reports. 

BPC’s Energy Project, which is led by former Sens. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and retired Gen. James L. Jones, aims to influence policy on greenhouse gas emissions, oil markets, renewable energy technology and alternative energy sources. 

In addition to her new job, she attends law school at Catholic University at night. 

She also finds time to renew an enthusiasm from her college days.

At Georgetown she was a coxswain for the women’s rowing team, a laboratory for  time management, leadership and teamwork skills. While she worked in the Senate, she was coxswain for the Potomac Boat Club.

“It was about pushing people to motivate themselves without going too far,” she said.

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Correction: Oct. 23, 4:25 p.m.

An earlier version of this article gave an incorrect time period for Rosemarie Calabro Tully’s role as coxswain. Tully was coxswain for the Potomac Boat Club while she worked in the Senate.

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