About Us |
Our History
Founders Alex and Kristen are research veterans of many political campaigns and organizations, but first worked together to elect former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen to the United States Senate in 2008. Years later they reunited in the White House research department, which worked tirelessly to protect the Obama administration from error, message distraction, and scandal. Under their leadership, the research department played a vital role at each step of every major White House speech, announcement, and event – vetting everyone from potential Supreme Court justices to people chosen to sit with the First Lady during the State of the Union address; preparing background research to ensure the Press Secretary and communications team would be ready for all manner of questions at the daily press briefing and beyond; fact-checking everything from two-sentence statements to hour-long congressional addresses; shaping and monitoring media coverage at the local and national level; pressure-testing rollouts for small policy initiatives and major announcements; and managing rapid response strategy for issues ranging from health care to foreign policy to climate change.
After leaving the White House in 2017, Alex and Kristen founded Silver Street Strategies, naming their new endeavour after the street in Manchester, New Hampshire, where they shared an apartment back in 2008. The firm expanded in June 2020, bringing on fellow Obama White House researcher Allison Kelly as Director of Operations and Special Projects.
Silver Street Strategies brings deep institutional knowledge and battle-tested research skills to a range of work with political, nonprofit, and corporate clients - with services including vetting high-dollar philanthropic donors and corporate partnerships, fact-checking speeches and books, providing key research and rapid response for political campaigns and organizations, writing research reports and analyses, and training in-house staff on due diligence processes tailored specifically to clients’ needs.
After leaving the White House in 2017, Alex and Kristen founded Silver Street Strategies, naming their new endeavour after the street in Manchester, New Hampshire, where they shared an apartment back in 2008. The firm expanded in June 2020, bringing on fellow Obama White House researcher Allison Kelly as Director of Operations and Special Projects.
Silver Street Strategies brings deep institutional knowledge and battle-tested research skills to a range of work with political, nonprofit, and corporate clients - with services including vetting high-dollar philanthropic donors and corporate partnerships, fact-checking speeches and books, providing key research and rapid response for political campaigns and organizations, writing research reports and analyses, and training in-house staff on due diligence processes tailored specifically to clients’ needs.
Our Team
Prior to launching Silver Street, Alex most recently served as Special Assistant to the President and Director of Research for the Obama White House, coordinating with nearly every White House department to provide support for informed and carefully deliberated decision-making and strategy. She managed a department of ten staffers responsible for fact-checking speeches, vetting all aspects of the President’s events to avoid message distractions, providing rapid response support, and assisting in preparation for the Press Secretary's daily briefing. Before her five-year stint at the White House, Alex was the research director at League of Conservation Voters where she contributed to campaigns to hold politicians accountable for their voting records on climate change and environmental issues. She is a veteran of federal, state, and local campaigns in Virginia, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Illinois. Alex graduated with a B.A. in Political Science from American University and originally hails from York, Pennsylvania.
Allison Kelly
Director of Operations and Special Projects Allison joined Silver Street Strategies in June 2020. She worked with Alex and Kristen in the Obama White House Research Department, where she served as Assistant Director for Vetting. In that role, she was responsible for vetting all aspects of Presidential events, fact-checking all of First Lady Michelle Obama’s speeches, leading vetting trainings, and supervising interns. After five years in the White House, Allison spent three years as a political appointee at NASA, serving in the space agency’s Office of Communications. As Deputy Press Secretary, she managed all press and public engagement activities for the Deputy Administrator and coordinated NASA’s participation in events organized by the White House and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Allison’s most recent roles have spanned philanthropy, technology, higher education, and television, with a focus on research, writing, and executive communications. She has a M.A. in Media and Strategic Communications from the George Washington University and a B.A. in Media Studies from Vassar College. A Wisconsin native, she currently lives in San Francisco, CA.
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Prior to launching Silver Street Strategies, Kristen served as Deputy Director of Research and Rapid Response Advisor for the Obama White House. In that role, she helped manage a ten-person department responsible for fact-checking President Obama’s remarks, vetting, media monitoring, and providing research and rapid response for President Obama and his senior advisors. She spent nearly six years in the Obama White House research department, where she fact-checked hundreds of presidential speeches, worked with White House counsel’s office on oversight-related communications, and identified key opportunities to quickly promote and successfully defend the president in the press. Prior to her years at the White House, Kristen worked as a researcher for the Center for American Progress Action Fund, EMILY’s List, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s 2009 campaign, and New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s successful 2008 campaign. Kristen is an alumna of American University and a native of Staten Island, New York
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