Alison MacDonald: Chief of staff, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)

Alison MacDonald is preparing to sunset a long career supporting the work of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who is retiring from Congress at the end of the term.

MacDonald, a New Hampshire native, was working as a health policy advocate outside of the Capitol when she was drawn to the opportunity to work for Shaheen in 2008. The two had met during Shaheen’s first run for the Senate six years earlier, and MacDonald loved the idea of staffing a female senator — one of the few at the time — and working on healthcare reform as then-President Obama was coming into office.

After about seven years as a senior health policy adviser, MacDonald took a term off the Hill, hoping to get closer to patients as a system vice president for policy at Dartmouth Health.

But the people on her former team, and the service work on the Hill, called MacDonald back.

As Shaheen’s chief of staff since 2022, no two workdays are the same. The job requires managing not only the policy team she used to be on but everyone else, too.

“I love [working on the Hill] because it’s so team oriented. The goal is clear, with all facets of the office coordinated and working together to support the Senator in serving the constituents of the state,” MacDonald said.

Shaheen praised MacDonald’s work on a range of health policy issues.

“Alison has shaped my office’s approach with a steady hand through some of the most challenging and rewarding moments that have defined my tenure in the Senate, earning respect from other Senate offices across the ideological spectrum all the while,” she said.

Shaheen still has plenty of goals as she enters her last few months in office. MacDonald has worked on diabetes policy throughout her career with the senator, and they’re in the throes of getting a bipartisan bill to cap insulin prices across the finish line.

They’re also starting to box up the office. MacDonald said her colleagues have been discovering some of her own old projects and memos from 18 years back.

“It’s been a bittersweet opportunity for us to really reflect on her full 30-year career in elected office, as we look through old files and reminisce about the colleagues we’ve been lucky to work with and the impact the senator, and this office, has had on the people of New Hampshire,” she said.