Humanities Express

"Like Drinking Water from a Fire Hydrant!"

That’s how Brian Besanceney (B.A. 93 History and Political Science) describes working at the White House, where he served as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Communications for two years. "The job taught me about the importance of multi-tasking, staying calm under intense pressure, and teamwork." He was responsible for communication strategies on public policy and served as principal spokesperson for the White House Homeland Security Council.

From his perspective, homeland security remains today’s most compelling and urgent issue: "When we were evacuated from the White House on September 11, the first thing I saw was smoke rising from the Pentagon. I will never forget that experience or the emotion I felt at the time." Earlier, as Director of Domestic Policy Communications, from 2001 to 2003, Besanceney had helped develop President Bush’s messages on criminal justice, education, healthcare, and the environment.

Then, earlier this year, Michael Chertoff, the new Secretary of Homeland Security, selected him to serve as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs to manage internal and external communications for the Department and its 22 component agencies. Besanceney’s new position offers the chance to work in depth every day on an issue about which he feels strongly: "Incident management—the system and series of actions we take to respond and recover from an attack or major natural disaster—is probably the biggest challenge for my staff and the Department as a whole."

As a student, Besanceney was a member of Sphinx Senior Honorary, Bucket and Dipper Junior Honorary, and Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity; he was voted Homecoming King in 1992. He worked in the President’s Office and was an intern in the Ohio House of Representatives. Two of his most influential mentors, he says, were then-President E. Gordon Gee and Mabel Freeman, today the assistant vice president of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and First Year Experience.

Foreign service was Besanceney’s career goal. After an internship with the Agency for International Development, he realized public policy would be a better fit. The advantage of having a humanities degree, he says, was that "the same basic skills I learned in school (critical thinking, research, writing) also applied to my new career path."

Besanceney advises students aspiring to work at the White House or in a future administration to get involved in public policy early in their careers. He adds, "Know how to communicate well verbally and in writing. Be open to new experiences and career paths that you might not anticipate when you're in school. And, perhaps most of all, find a career that makes you genuinely happy going to work every day." The screening process for jobs at that level, he notes, "is fairly intensive because you not only have to go through a round of pretty intimidating interviews and a vetting process but also a full FBI background investigation in order to get the necessary security clearance."

Working at the White House was an incredible honor and privilege for him: "I was pleasantly surprised they let me in the gate every day, much less paid me to work there! I had the opportunity to interact directly with the President on a number of occasions, including briefing him in the Oval Office."

Besanceney notes, "I think citizens sometimes have an overly cynical view of politics and politicians. While that view is well deserved in some cases, there are a lot of good people in public service who are working very hard every day to do good things for the country." The College of Humanities congratulates Brian Besanceney on his new position and commends him for working hard to ensure the security of all Americans.