By Menachem Wecker
“You could probably drop me into GW now, and I would still be able to walk backwards across the campus,” says New Jersey State Senator Bill Baroni, a Republican from Middlesex and Mercer counties.
As a GW student, Sen. Baroni, B.A. ’94, was a STAR, a Student Admissions Representative, who gave hundreds of campus tours. “Every once in a while, I still run into people, who say, ‘Oh. You gave my tour at GW!’”
Sen. Baroni was interested in political science when he came to GW, but after taking courses with “amazing” history professors, including Richard Stott, he fell in love with history. “I was a kid born in Jacksonville, Fla., which is named after Andrew Jackson, raised in Hamilton, N.J., a town named after Alexander Hamilton, who went to undergrad at a university named after George Washington and law school at a school founded by Thomas Jefferson,” he says. “So I was destined to be a history major.”
In his new position as deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Sen. Baroni will oversee an annual budget of more than $6 billion and will manage more than 7,000 employees. Port Authority also directs Newark Liberty, JFK and LaGuardia airports, the George Washington Bridge, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels and the PATH train. It is also managing the rebuilding of the World Trade Center. Sen. Baroni, who will step down from his senate position, expects to start his new government-appointed position within the next few weeks.
Sen. Baroni replaces another GW graduate, Susan Bass Levin, J.D. ’75 as the highest ranking full-time staff member from New Jersey at the Port Authority. The Port Authority is a bi-state agency, and Sen. Baroni’s New York counterpart is Christopher Ward, executive director.
“This is apparently becoming the GW spot,” he says. “I think it says a lot about the education and background that people get at the George Washington University that two different governors from two different parties have appointed GW graduates to fill this critical role.”
Sen. Baroni credits his time in Foggy Bottom with training him for his political career.
“One of the things that I think GW teaches all of us, is that regardless of where in government – the State Department, the White House, the Hill, the International Monetary Fund, all of our neighbors in Foggy Bottom – there are almost endless ways to give back in public service, and it’s well worth doing,” he says. “GW prepares you for that.”
The most important skill that Sen. Baroni developed at GW, he says, was the “ability and necessity to work with all different kinds of people.” That exposure to diversity helped him grow and allowed him to accept a job which calls upon him to work with people across the globe. “The broad spectrum of faculty, staff and students at GW is great preparation for a life in government and public service,” he says.
Sen. Baroni remembers cheering for the Colonials basketball teams – both men’s and women’s – and he has decorated his senate office accordingly. “The GW banner hangs right here in my legislative office, and it will hang in the Port Authority when I get there,” he says.
When he supported a marriage equality bill in the New Jersey Senate last December, Sen. Baroni was pleased to see the story covered by campus media. “I was very lucky to have some coverage in the GW press. It meant a lot to me,” he says. “It’s nice to have a comment in the New York Times, but it’s great to be in the Hatchet!”
When asked what brought him to GW, Sen. Baroni says he wishes he could say he heard trumpets when he arrived on campus. Instead, GW simply had the best admissions publication. “I came to GW essentially sight unseen,” he says. “I just thought the brochures were better than anyone else’s.”
As a GW student, Sen. Baroni quickly returned to the brochures, when he started as a work study student in the mail room of the admissions office “putting the labels on the brochures, back when that still happened.” He remembers working with Deborah Snelgrove, B.A. ’85, associate vice president for creative management, whom he calls “one of the most important people ever in my life.”
Chris Brooks, B.A. ’08, a Presidential Administrative Fellow and a master’s candidate in the Graduate School of Political Management, came to GW because of Sen. Baroni.
Mr. Brooks first met Sen. Baroni as one of 800 New Jersey high school students at a Boys State assembly, in which the senator was the keynote speaker. Sen. Baroni mentioned GW in his talk, so Mr. Brooks asked him about the university after the lecture. That’s how he learned about GW’s brochure. Mr. Brooks quit the tours at the other schools he visited early, but went through GW’s tour in full – twice. He applied early and was accepted.
“Senator Baroni inspires people to get involved in politics and to believe in the democratic process,” says Mr. Brooks. “This is how he was elected in a predominantly Democratic district, knocking on more than 10,000 doors to meet and genuinely care for his constituents.”
Sen. Baroni says he will bring his consumer-friendly approach to his new position. “There will be times when you will see me walking around the Port Authority Bus Terminal asking people how we are doing and what we can do better,” he says. “I got elected in a district where Democrats significantly outnumber Republicans because I worked really hard and knocked on a lot of doors. At the Port Authority, I’m going to also work really hard and talk to a lot of our consumers.”
Although the joint New Jersey and New York collaboration in Port Authority promises to be logistically complicated, Sen. Baroni is sure he can handle it. “That’s why they pick a GW person who is used to working with people from all over the place,” he says. “The Port Authority is the natural extension of having gone to GW.”
Sen. Baroni advises students to “work somewhere, anywhere” as soon as possible. “Go get an internship. Don’t wait. If you wait until senior year to get an internship you could have gone to school in the middle of a farm field somewhere. But you came to GW. Jump right in.”
Networking is also invaluable for both students and recent alumni. “Talk to other GW people. If given the opportunity I’d always pick a GW person, because we share that common experience in Foggy Bottom.”