Wyndee Parker: National security adviser, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)

No two days are the same for Wyndee Parker.

As national security adviser to House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), Parker is responsible for overseeing the activities of all of the lower chamber’s national security committees, including Armed Services, Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, Homeland Security and their Appropriations counterparts.

She also works with the executive branch and its corresponding agencies that make up the entire intelligence community, including the CIA, National Security Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Defense Department, State Department and some elements of the Department of Homeland Security.

Day to day, she helps ensure information is flowing to Congress and lawmakers and their staff are “kept as informed as they should be about all of the executive branch activities, operations, etc.,” often working with the National Security Council to ensure that the right briefings come together.

On top of that, Parker ensures Jeffries is prepared for “a lot” of meetings with foreign dignitaries and senior executive branch officials, and she helps work on and review legislation that moves out of committees and onto the House floor, such as the National Defense Authorization Act — one of the largest bills Congress passes annually.

Parker admits she was “a little skeptical” when she came to Capitol Hill 25 years ago to serve as counsel on the House Intelligence Committee. That was a few years after receiving her law degree from Ohio State University and working in the office of general counsels for both the CIA and FBI.

“My supervisor at the time told me ‘you know, no day is like any other day that’s gone before.’ … A couple decades later, I’m saying the same thing said to me,” she said, attributing it to the nature of national security work.

“The world is so dynamic. It keeps us definitely motivated and kind of energized,” Parker said before adding that the phone rings “too often, I should say, between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m.”

Prior to working for Jeffries, Parker was with another senior member of the Democratic Party for nearly 15 years: former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), also serving as her national security adviser.

When she’s not up to her neck in national security matters, Parker said she relishes spending time with her husband and two children.