Tanushri Shankar is the chief of staff at Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a division of the nonprofit organization Everytown for Gun Safety. Shankar has spent the majority of her professional career in the world of politics. 

During her time at Virginia Tech, she held the position of Student Government Association president and earned her bachelor’s degree, with a public relations major, from the School of Communication in 2016. After graduation, Shankar was a staff assistant in the White House during President Barack Obama's administration. After that, she worked in Washington, D.C., for nearly five years filling various positions under U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the House of Representatives. She took on her current position at Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in November 2023. 

Shankar recently shared how public relations has guided her in her political work. 

What skills did you learn as a public relations student at Virginia Tech and how did you use them to succeed in your professional career? 

I think generally at the School of Communication, one thing that Virginia Tech emphasizes is that there's no communication too big or too small. For example, in one-on-one interactions that I had with people in my old job, I would interact with the press all the time even though I wasn't the [communications] director. I would interact with constituents whom we represented. It really taught me the importance of making sure that your communication is on message and consistent. You have an open line of communication, no matter the level. 

What life lessons did you learn during your time at Virginia Tech?

It's a cliche, but there's no such thing as bad press. That is not quite my philosophy, but I do think that public relations gives you the opportunity to set the record straight and turn bad press into something that could potentially be perceived as positive. I think the biggest thing is that public relations is the only way that elected officials, public figures, and people that need to be held accountable have to communicate with large groups of people. I think it's essential to the democratic system.

When you ran for SGA president, you campaigned on the idea that “At the end of the day, students matter” – lobbying for students’ representation. How does this play out in the professional world, and what can we do to continue to fight for equal representation, regardless of an individual’s background or ideology?

I think it translates one-for-one basically. The idea is that representation is essential for the democratic process, no matter if they vote or don't vote, no matter their background, no matter whether they're documented or undocumented. Whatever that looks like, everyone deserves equal representation. I'm a resident of [Washington] D.C. “Taxation Without Representation” is on our license plate, and I see that playing out in our political system here. I think it certainly translates. When I was running for student body president, it was really important to me. I have a very specific political belief that has evolved over the years. It was important to me that I was representing everyone, not just people that had the same beliefs as me and not just people that supported me or my campaign. The student that said, “I don't even know who the president is,” was as important for me as anyone else. 

How did serving as SGA president prepare you for a life in politics?

Politics is people, right? On a small scale in student government, you have to keep that human interaction approach in mind. People come to you and they may ask you about stuff or grill you. I would definitely say public relations came in there.  When you're working for elected representatives that have constituencies, these issues are on a much bigger scale. People will want to hold [representatives] accountable for something they said or people might be struggling in our district and want answers from an elected official. I think a lot of it translates into that bigger scale. 

Talk about your transition into the work world. 

My transition was a little bit back and forth because originally I thought I was going to go into the Peace Corps. I took an internship with the White House after I graduated during President Obama's last term. They offered me a job, so I stayed on and delayed the Peace Corps. When President Donald Trump was elected, I felt like my calling was in politics and in political work. I wouldn't say that it was easy. I do think that I lucked out in that I immediately liked the work that I was doing. It was easy for me to stay in that work; whereas, some people have to switch a couple of times – like a freshman in college who changes their major. I wouldn't say that that happened to me in the professional world. I clicked with the work that I was doing immediately.

How did your life change once you started working in Washington with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez?

My life got busier. I started working for Rep. Ocasio-Cortez when I was 24, and I just left in October. It was the first time I'd ever worked on [Capitol] Hill, and so it was certainly a pivotal part of my career. One thing that changed my trajectory there is that when you work in the House of Representatives, you respond to the 750,000 constituents that your boss represents; you're on the hook for that. That's a really special thing in a lot of ways. I got to see so much change, specifically during COVID. New York 14 – the district Rep. Ocasio-Cortez represents – was the hardest hit by coronavirus. During the pandemic, the entire country is on lockdown; we're trying to navigate work from home; we have people getting sick, hospitalized, dying. We have things happening in the district that need attention. It's not like we can just clock out and work from home, so we went into this rapid response moment. I think we were able to do a lot for constituents during that time. I think the biggest thing that happened is that I saw a lot of reward for my job which I hadn't seen at that personal level while working in The White House. You don't really interact with the American people in the same way. 

Discuss the role of public relations in your daily activities on that job.

I think it's the most public relations has played a role in any job because the congresswoman is certainly an excellent and gifted communicator. With everything that she does, we have to figure out: How are we going to communicate this to the public? How do people know what we're doing? How do our constituents know how to get more information? Everyone, especially senior staff in the office, were always thinking about the public relations, public messaging and information dissemination that is really important to make sure that the most underrepresented people have the same information. 

You currently serve as the chief of staff for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Tell me about what the nonprofit organization does and its importance to you.

Moms Demand Action is a part of Everytown for Gun Safety, which is a gun violence prevention organization in the U.S. When I thought about what issues really spark passion in me, this was one of them. It's always going be one of them. It felt like the right organization to join given the time and the connections I had there as I previously worked at Everytown for Gun Safety. My day-to- day job as chief of staff revolves around: What can I do to make everyone around me run smoother? That includes making sure that our executive director, who is the surrogate on behalf of the organization, has what she needs to speak to the public. There's definitely a lot of public relations involved in that. 

Talk about the excitement that you experience going to your job on a daily basis and interacting with people in a way that brings about change. 

For me, the thing that is really important in any job is that I'm making a difference; I'm leaving the world a better place than how I found it. I think the thing that motivates me has never been money or power, but can I go to bed every day knowing that I helped someone or that I did something that I feel passionate about and believe in? Everyone's different, but for me, it was definitely asking, ‘how much good can I do?’ I think it's really important.

What advice would you give to PR or other communication students who would like to have your job or a similar one in the future?

Definitely take advantage of internship opportunities, whether they're remote, whether they're national, or whether they're in [Washington] D.C. Internships are often a foot in the door where you can often get hired after the experience. I did. We hired interns regularly after they interned in our office on [Capitol] Hill. I definitely think internships are really important and they're an opportunity for you to test out what you'd like to do. Maybe you majored in communication, but you're not going to end up in the very traditional path of working at a PR agency or working in news media. If that's not your jam, internships are a good opportunity to test the waters.

Written by Javier Mico-Crump, student media content assistant for School of Communication

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