Debbie Walsh

Debbie Walsh is the director of the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers’ Eagleton Institute of Politics. She joined the CAWP staff in 1981 after earning her B.A. in political science from SUNY Binghamton and her M.A. in political science from Rutgers, where she was an Eagleton Fellow.

As director, she manages and oversees CAWP’s multi-faceted programs that include:

  • national forums for political women that address cutting-edge issues, provide vital information and facilitate creative strategy-building;
  • leadership and campaign training programs that empower women of all ages to participate fully in politics and public life;
  • research conducted over 30 years illuminating women’s distinctive contributions, roles and experiences in politics and government; and
  • up-to-the-minute information and historical perspectives about women as candidates, public officials and voters.

She is frequently called upon by the media for information and comment, and she speaks to a variety of audiences in New Jersey and around the country on topics related to women’s political participation.

She has organized more than a dozen national conferences for women officials, ranging from small meetings focused on issues such as women’s legislative caucuses, women in legislative leadership and training programs for newly elected women legislators to CAWP’s quadrennial national Forum for Women State Legislators, to which every woman state legislator in the country is invited.

She currently serves on the New Jersey Advisory Commission on the Status of Women, which she was appointed to by Governor James E. McGreevey and reappointed to by Governor Jon S. Corzine.

In 1984 she served as the Associate Producer of a documentary film “Not One of the Boys” which aired on the PBS series, Frontline, and had a viewership of six million people.

Contact Debbie Walsh