Student body president became Capitol Hill chief of staff

The story by UNC Hussman alumni Brennan Doherty ’19 and video by John Roberts ’16 (M.A.) was originally published on unc.edu. This story is the first in a four-part series on Carolina alumni working in Washington, D.C. Outside of the state of North Carolina, the Washington region is home to the largest concentration of Tar Heel alumni in the country.

Elizabeth Adkins ’18 spoke her future into existence at Carolina’s new student orientation in 2014, after hearing the student body president talk.

“That’s going to be me one day,” Adkins told her mother. Three years later, she won the SBP election.

Now chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee of North Carolina’s 4th District, Adkins is convinced she wouldn’t be working on Capitol Hill if she hadn’t represented Carolina’s student body, served as a UNC-Chapel Hill trustee and worked alongside other University and Student Government leaders.

“I learned how to have difficult conversations, how important it is to build a strong team of people around you and rely on them, how important it is to make your voice heard in a room where no one else looks like you and how to stick up for what you believe in even when it isn’t easy,” said Adkins.

These lessons shape her work with Foushee’s 20-person staff in Washington and North Carolina. She oversees political strategy and executive management while also managing different departments within the office, including the legislative, communications and outreach teams.

Adkins travels with Foushee, some days preparing remarks and statements, others working with the congresswoman on upcoming votes, legislative ideas and communications strategies.

“The most rewarding part is definitely the people, both the public servants I work with and the constituents we serve,” said Adkins, also board president of the North Carolina Society, the oldest state society in Washington.

“I’m constantly inspired by the people who care enough about their communities and their country to engage with their federal representative — and the people I work with who have dedicated their lives and careers to help those people.”

“I definitely would not be working in Congress if it weren’t for the experience of being student body president.”

Elizabeth Adkins ’18

“I really owe everything I have to Tar Heels who came before me.”

Elizabeth Adkins ’18

Finding her path

A first-generation college student from Fayetteville, North Carolina, Adkins fell in love with Carolina as a rising high school senior attending Project Uplift. The on-campus summer enrichment program promotes and increases access to higher education.

“It was an amazing opportunity to learn from current Carolina students about the academic experience but also the extracurriculars and the student organizations, which really complete the Carolina experience,” she said.

Like many college students, she wavered on her initial career plans. Adkins realized her first choice, journalism, wasn’t for her. But her studies at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media remained useful, and she paired them with a political science degree from the UNC College of Arts and Sciences.

Adkins called Professor Valerie “VK” Fields’ crisis communications course “the hardest and probably the most stressful class that I ever took” and one whose lessons she uses “nearly every day on Capitol Hill.”

“MEJO 153: Writing and Reporting” also made Adkins vigilant about avoiding factual and grammatical errors, “which is incredibly important when you’re responsible for every piece of material that comes out of a congressional office.”

Approaching graduation, Adkins wasn’t sure what was next. But a fellow Tar Heel introduced her to former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s legislative director, leading to an internship. Adkins then worked with former U.S. Rep. David Price for over four years before joining Foushee’s staff in 2023.

“I really owe everything I have to Tar Heels who came before me,” Adkins said.

Did you know: In April UNC-Chapel Hill opened its Carolina in the Capital office in Washington. 

Working in government remains as meaningful to Adkins now as it was when she arrived at the nation’s capital in 2018.

“Early on in my career I was told that the minute you don’t feel a sense of awe looking at the Capitol, then it’s time to go,” she said.

For Adkins, that day is still far away. This Tar Heel is right where she wants to be.

Elizabeth Adkins on…

Being a Tar Heel in Washington: When I first moved to D.C., I didn’t know a single person here, and I had never lived outside of North Carolina. But I quickly found that Tar Heel network that they always talk about when you’re at Carolina. Here in D.C., it’s huge, and I immediately found a piece of home here through my fellow Tar Heels. It definitely made living in a new city a lot easier and less scary.

Favorite Franklin Street spot: Top of the Hill for sure — and YoPo. I definitely still think about the dulce de leche frozen yogurt and blueberry wheat beer weekly.

Advice to students interested in political careers: Find a job that allows you to enact meaningful change in your communities and also prioritize finding a network of people who care about you and want to invest in you and your career. I think a lot of times young students and recent grads get caught up in the idea of working for a place like Congress and working on the Hill, but the reality is there are a multitude of ways to do good work in politics and all of them are important. No one’s journey is linear.