"I had the privilege of serving with some of America’s best leaders during my time in the military. We’re taught from day one that no matter where you’re from or what your perspective, we’re all on the same team and serving the same mission. We need that kind of leadership in politics, and I’m proud to serve on the Leadership Council to advise New Politics as they work every day to elect a new generation of leaders on both sides of the aisle who put service first."

elisa basnight

Elisa is an accomplished business leader and lawyer with significant experience in leading enterprise and digital transformations, directing change management strategies, business and legal operations teams, technical personnel, and line management staffs in exceeding policy, production and service objectives. Her leadership philosophy promotes employee and stakeholder engagement in creative problem solving and design thinking to contribute to organizational success and repositioning small, medium and large-scale corporate, governmental and nonprofit enterprises for growth. 

She began her career as a military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army and U.S. Army Reserves. Since transitioning from the military, Basnight has held a variety of senior executive roles, including: as senior vice president for veterans programs at Health Net Federal Services, a Centene subsidiary, with P&L responsibility of the end-to-end (E2E) managed care support of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) portfolio; as a Senior Executive Services (SES)  presidential appointee at the Department of the Treasury as the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Mint, which included overseeing five (5) of the enterprise divisions, and as director of VA’s Center for Women Veterans, which administers health care benefits, services and programs in a distribution operating model across 150 medical centers and 56 regional offices for more than 2 million women veterans. Elisa also represented the Department of Veterans Affairs as a member of the White House Council on Women and Girls. 

Prior to her White House appointments, Elisa served as corporate commercial counsel at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, where she was a member of the corporate finance team and her practice included corporate and commercial contracts (manufacturing, engineering & construction, supply chain); government relations; small-owned businesses; healthcare and technology; was an associate with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in New York, NY, where her practice focused primarily on mergers and acquisitions, cross-border transactions and technology in domestic and international markets; and spent several years in operational roles at Prudential Financial and Bankers Trust.

Elisa has a passion for serving others and has received special recognition and awards for her service to girls, women, veterans and military service members and families. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on boards and committees. 

Elisa is a graduate of the United States Military Academy – West Point, Boston University-Brussels, Rutgers Law School, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.