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Since Fiona Hill's testimony is out today and some people will undoubtedly be trying to smear her or question her integrity, I want to share a brief story about Fiona and the kind of person she is:
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When I came to Washington six years ago to start my job as a research assistant @BrookingsFP, I knew nobody and I was a nobody. Just a new, completely overwhelmed low-level staffer who wasn't important.
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I had only been in DC for a few weeks when Brookings FP held its annual Christmas party. I showed up, clung to the few other RAs and interns I had met so far, and tried to fade into the background as all these big, important, impressive scholars talked and laughed around me.
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I was standing all alone in a hallway awkward waiting for the ladies' room when a woman comes sweeping up to me, looks me right in the eye, sticks out her hand to shake mine, and says, "Hi, are you Jennifer? I'm Fiona Hill. I've been wanting to meet you."
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I had no idea who she was (I did Middle East stuff, not Russia) but since she knew my name, I assumed she was someone on staff who had been involved in my hiring somehow. We talked and chatted and she made me feel so welcome and like I belonged at this party.
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When I went home that night, I googled her. And discovered that she was FIONA freaking HILL, Senior Fellow and Russia expert extraordinaire who had been the national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia on the National Intelligence Council.
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I was floored. This woman who was so incredibly far above me had made a point to come over and introduce herself to ME — a nobody research assistant who could do nothing for her.
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I would come to learn that that sort of thing DOES NOT usually happen in DC. People at Fiona's level do not typically deign to waste their time seeking out and speaking to low-level staffers unless they need us to do something like get them a new beverage.
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But Fiona did. She treated me like I mattered, even though I really didn't. She made me feel like what I had to say mattered, even though it really didn't. She made me feel welcome and seen. And she's treated me that way ever since.
That's the kind of person Fiona Hill is.
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That's the kind of person Fiona Hill is.
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