'Whatever you do, do it with passion,' says UPJ alum who was Laura Bush's press secretary

Oct. 20—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — As press secretary to former first lady Laura Bush, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown graduate Sally McDonough soon learned the job required access to a vast amount of information.

"I learned you can't be afraid to ask for help," McDonough said on Thursday at the John P. Murtha Center for Public Service at Pitt-Johnstown.

It was part of the advice she shared with students and the public as part of the school's Distinguished Speaker Series.

A 1989 graduate of Pitt-Johnstown, McDonough took the audience through her impressive career in Washington, which started with a job on former Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski's staff and included early stints working for Pennsylvania Sen. John Heinz and Wisconsin Sen. Bob Kasten.

"In three years on Capitol Hill, I had three jobs," she said. "I thought, 'This is crazy.' "

Her next job, she said, combined her passions for public relations and history. For five years, she managed public relations for George Washington's Mount Vernon estate in Virginia.

McDonough stressed to the students that the job was not something she had dreamed about or even sought out.

"It just happened," she said. "It was the right place for me at that time. I love history. Find that job where you are passionate."

After leaving the Mount Vernon job, McDonough went to work for Ogilvy Public Relations, where she met Laura Bush while working on a celebrity fashion show in New York.

When she found out the White House was interviewing for the first lady's press secretary, McDonough decided to go after it.

"I decided I really want this job," she recalled. "I see it as telling her story and telling his story."

When Bush traveled to Afghanistan during the Gulf War, McDonough flew with her.

Originally, the first lady's trip was to be limited to visiting Kabul, the capital. However, Bush wanted to show support for women and insisted on visiting a northern province where a woman governor had been making progress.

"I have to support women," McDonough recalled Bush saying.

Bush also gained attention when she held what McDonough believes was the first press conference in the White House briefing room that was called by a first lady. That event called attention to the plight of people in Burma following a massive cyclone that killed more than 10,000. The military government was blocking entrance by State Department teams that would bring assistance to the country.

McDonough said she set up the event in the briefing room because it would give the first lady's remarks more weight with the media.

After Barack Obama defeated George W. Bush in the 2008 election, McDonough went to work at the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

Although she loved the history, McDonough said she didn't like some of the policies, so she left the job and went into the private sector, working for defense contractor Raytheon.

Today, she is senior director for executive and employee communications at RTX Global Communications in Arlington, Virginia.

She summed up her advice to students, saying, "Whatever you do, do it with passion and try to show class. When you do that, the days don't go by slowly."