Abbie Hodgson is the Director of The Ascend Fund at Panorama. In her role, Abbie works to increase gender equity in political representation by investing in organizations that remove barriers and support women running for office.
Abbie brings more than two decades of experience in politics to Panorama. She’s worked on more than 100 campaigns at all levels, across the country, and even ran for office herself. Notably, Abbie served as a speechwriter for Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and chief of staff to the House Minority Leader in the Kansas Legislature.
Most recently, Abbie worked for The Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, DC, where she was responsible for developing and implementing legislative campaign strategies for a diverse group of public policy priorities across multiple states.
Abbie earned a PhD in Communication Studies from the University of Kansas, where she also taught for ten years. Her dissertation focused on how to increase the number of women in politics by improving the ways organizations recruit, train, and support women in the process of running for office.
When not working to elect more women, Abbie can be found in the kitchen, baking award-winning pies, a skill she learned from her grandmother.
