Cheryl Mills

Mills is the daughter of a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army[9][10] and grew up on Army posts all over the world,[10] including Belgium, West Germany, and the U.S.[9] She attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland. Mills received her B.A. from the University of Virginia in 1987,[3] where she was Phi Beta Kappa,[11] and her J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1990,[3] where she was elected to Stanford Law Review.[3]

She worked as an associate at the Washington law firm of Hogan & Hartson.[10] While there, she represented school districts seeking to achieve racial integration per Brown v. Board of Education.[3]

After serving as Deputy General Counsel of the Clinton/Gore Transition Planning Foundation after Clinton's 1992 election, she served as Associate Counsel to the President in the White House[3] from 1993 on.[11] Until the impeachment, she was little known to the public,[12] although she did rise to public attention when a burglar reportedly broke into her car and stole documents relating to the handling of the late Vincent Foster's papers related to the Whitewater controversy, as well as the 1993 federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco.[13]

During the impeachment trial, the BBC reported that she was "widely regarded as the shining star of the defense team, and gave an effective presentation on President Clinton's behalf on the second day of defense arguments."[1] Other media outlets also viewed her work quite favorably.[14] Her presentation to the Senate focused on refuting the obstruction of justice charge and the House Managers' claim that failure to convict the President would damage the rule of law.[1] Her summation became known for its endorsement of Clinton's record with respect towards women and minorities;[2] she said, "I stand here before you today because President Bill Clinton believed I could stand here for him ... I'm not worried about civil rights, because this President's record on civil rights, on women's rights, on all of our rights is unimpeachable."[2][9]

After Clinton was acquitted, Mills was offered the White House Counsel position when Charles Ruff stepped down, but she declined.[2]

After leaving the Clinton administration, Mills took a break from the practice of law. From 1999 to 2001, she served as Senior Vice President for Corporate Policy and Public Programming at Oxygen Media.[3]

By 2002, she was working for New York University (NYU).[15] While at NYU, she played a central role in the university administration's efforts around union contracts with adjunct faculty[16][17] and graduate students.[18][19] The Washington Post reported in October 2015 that, during Mills' first four months at the State Department, she continued to work at NYU on a part-time basis, negotiating with officials in Abu Dhabi to build a campus in the United Arab Emirates city.[20] She worked for no pay in those first months at the State Department, and was officially designated as a "temporary expert-consultant", which allowed her to continue receiving outside income while serving as Clinton's Chief of Staff. On her financial disclosure forms, she reported $198,000 in income from NYU in 2009, during the period her university work overlapped with her time at the State Department, and that she collected an additional $330,000 in vacation and severance payments when she left the university’s payroll in May 2009.[20] Additionally, Mills remained on the Clinton Foundation’s unpaid board for a short time after joining the State Department. Another Clinton aide, Huma Abedin, spent her final six months employed as Clinton’s deputy chief of staff in 2012, while also simultaneously employed by the Clinton Foundation.[20] As has Abedin's, Mills’ employment arrangement has raised questions regarding potential conflicts of interest, in Mills' case about how one of the State Department’s top employees set boundaries between her public role and a private job that involved work on a project funded by a foreign government.[20] Under Federal ethics laws, employees are prohibited from participating in matters that would have any direct and predictable effect on themselves or an outside employer. Mills told the Washington Post that she did not “recall any issues” at the State Department that would have required her recusing herself, and said she would have consulted with the ethics office if such an issue had come up. Nick Merrill, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, declined to comment.[20]

Mills served as the Counselor and Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton beginning in January 2009.[21] In her capacity as Counselor, she was a principal officer who served the Secretary as a special adviser on major foreign policy challenges.[5] As Chief of Staff, Mills managed the Department's staff, providing support to the Secretary in administering operations of the Department. Several months after her appointment, former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart noted in an interview: “I think Secretary Clinton wants to know you’re a team player, but she wants to hear it straight and she gets exactly that from Cheryl.”[22]

In summer 2016, CNN reported on another ethical question pertaining to Mills' relationship with the Clinton Foundation during her tenure at the State Department: In 2012 Mills had traveled to New York City in order to assist the foundation by conducting interviews in a high-level candidate search.[23] Mills' attorney emphasized that she had assisted on a strictly volunteer basis, and was not paid for her services or travel; a State Department spokesperson indicated that such an undertaking was not in conflict with federal ethics rules.[23]

Mills founded BlackIvy Group and is CEO of BlackIvy group, a company which builds and grows enterprises in Africa.[6][35] Her close professional relationship with Sae-A chairman Woong-ki Kim led them to cooperate with Costa Rican president Luis Guillermo Solís cutting the ribbon at the new Sae-A factory in Costa Rica.[6]

Throughout her career, Mills has been active in community service and civic affairs. In 1990, she worked with DCWorks, a non-profit organization that supported the academic and social development of underprivileged high school students of color.[3][10] She served on the Boards of the See Forever Foundation, National Partnership for Women and Families, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, the Jackie Robinson Foundation, the Center for American Progress, and the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Foundation.[3] In 2010, Mills received UVA's Distinguished Alumna Award.[36] In the corporate world, Mills served on the board of Cendant Corporation.[3]

Mills has spoken about women in the work place and work-life balance.[37] “There weren't often a lot of models where you could see women at the height of what they were doing and balancing their family,” she told ABC News. “And being able to see her [Clinton] with Chelsea, see what their relationship was like, see when she took the time, all those things helped you to be thoughtful about how to be an effective parent yourself." [38]

On March 26, 2014, Elle magazine honored Mills at the Italian Embassy in the United States during its annual “Women in Washington Power List” celebration.[21]

• New York University official biography
• State Department official biography
• BlackIvy LLC
• Appearances on C-SPAN