D.C.-Bound Gardiner Prepares for Life in Politics

She may not have hit Leno or Letterman yet, but Avery W. Gardiner '97 is already fodder for political humor.

"At the Kennedy School annual dinner, they usually have some speakers and do some funny skits," says John W. Turner '97. "This last year one of the students [played] Avery Gardiner."

At nearly every event at the Institute of Politics (IOP) Forum last year, Gardiner was the first person at the microphone to ask questions after the speaker's remarks. And every single time she said exactly the same thing:

"I'm Avery Gardiner, a senior at the College and chair of the Institute of Politics Student Advisory Committee. On behalf of the Institute of Politics, I'd like to welcome you to Harvard."

"She does it so well and so often that all the Kennedy School students know her," says Turner, who worked with Gardiner as the Student Advisory Committee vice-chair. "Anyone at the IOP knows [that] line."

There seems to be no question in the mind of those who know her that Gardiner will someday become a topic of late-night talk show monologues.

"We all expect that Avery [will] end up in Congress or the White House," says Sally Foster, Gardiner's American history teacher and year-book adviser at Cony High School in Augusta, Maine.

Gardiner's parents introduced her to politics early and often. When the family moved to Augusta when Gardiner was three, they lived just behind the state capitol complex.

The family's dinner table conversations often revolved around politics and other community issues.

On her most recent visit to Augusta, "she wasn't home for five minutes when we'd gotten into a discussion about politics," says Gardiner's mother Anne, a court mediator.

At an age when other kids were going to the playground, Gardiner and her siblings spent Maine's harsh winters learning about state government.

"If the legislature was in session, we'd sit up in the balcony. It allowed me to be stimulated by the current events," Anne says. "[The children] were really good and were fascinated."

Gardiner got her picture in the local paper for the very first time at age three when she accompanied her dad, Robert H. Gardiner '66, to the state's Democratic caucus.

"She was definitely the youngest one there," remembers her father, who is president of Maine public television. "There was a look on her face that showed interest in what was going on."

At age nine, Gardiner was already planning a career of her own in government.

"I just sort of out of the blue said, 'Avery, what do you think you want to be in life?'" says her father. "She says, 'Well, Dad, I used to think I wanted to be president. But now I think I want to be chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.' It was an outrageous age to even be thinking about that."

"She was interested in adult issues from the time she was very, very small," Gardiner's mother says. "If we were having an adult party, she would be in the doorway listening to what was going on."

Gardiner's younger sister Kate says Avery was rarely rebellious. She got in trouble once in high school for taking issue with federal policy.

"She was sent to the principal's office in high school because she refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance," Kate says. "It was during the Gulf War, and she didn't believe in what the country was doing."

Gardiner made her mark in Augusta politics during her first and second years of high school, while also serving as class president. She took on the city council over school budget cuts.

"It was pretty drastic. They were cutting busing, cutting all extracurriculars, no field trips, no new textbooks," she says. "My sister, when she was a freshman in high school, learned about the Soviet Union, which was not then the Soviet Union. But that's what the book said."

Gardiner spoke at city council and school board meetings and invited the city councillors to Cony High School for the day.

"Only one of them took me up on the offer, but I showed him around the school and told him how we really needed the money and how it was important," she says. "And I got myself in the paper."

She also made quite an impact on the community.

"There was a state legislator by the name of Dan Hickey, a wonderful man, and I helped on his reelection campaign one year," Gardiner says. "Because I had so much publicity during this city council fight,...they asked me to do an endorsement. They ran a political ad with my smiling face. I couldn't even vote for him!"

Education is one of the issues Gardiner says she'd like to tackle in her career. While others have political aspirations for her, she herself says she's interested in formulating public policy.

She does, though, she admit that the positions of mayor of Boston or state governor are appealing.

Gardiner says she's interested in matters of "social equity": fighting crime, balancing work and family and working for women's rights.

Those who know her say Gardiner really is interested in issues and not only political power.

"Avery is just so interested in ideas, interested in what's happening in the world," her mother says.

At Harvard, she has focused on extracurriculars involving politics and government. She was a member of Model Congress and taught middle school kids in Dorchester as part of the Harvard Program for International Education. In 1996, she served as chair of the IOP's Student Advisory Committee.

Her boyfriend of three years, Matt Anestis '95, who is also a former SAC chair, recalls Gardiner's first meeting at the IOP as a first-year.

"She raised her hand and she said, 'Why don't you do this?' We all looked at each other and said, 'I guess we should be doing that,'" Anestis says.

"She's a very striking, assertive, confident person. She wasn't afraid to get up and ask questions at the IOP from the moment she walked in," he says.

As chair of the SAC, Gardiner has been criticized by some IOP insiders for being too distant and allowing backbiting and infighting among the students. But no one was willing to go on the record with their comments.

Turner says the situation wasn't really any different from any other student organizations.

"She and I didn't always agree on everything, but I always found her to be very willing to try to work out differences in a reasonable way," Turner says. "She always maintains good spirits.... She'll always be able to rally the troops. She's often the force behind things that you may not even have known originated with her."

Gardiner says that one of her goals as SAC chair was to broaden the appeal of the IOP.

"I feel like I did have an important impact down there," she says. "Most importantly, we shifted direction a lot, away from focusing on political junkies who are already interested to sparking political interest in those who didn't think politics touched their lives."

In particular, she worked hard on the IOP's fall "political Lollapalooza," HYPE '96.

Not surprisingly, Gardiner's extracurricular focus has also formed the basis of her academic career.

An economics concentrator, Gardiner combined her major with her true passion to write a thesis on the economic determinants of voting behavior in presidential and gubernatorial elections from 1915 to the present.

She also authored a widely-cited study of women's leadership in extracurricular organizations. She says that sometimes that's all she's remembered for--a fact which may reflect the results of her study.

"Once you speak once on women's issues," Gardiner says, "The Crimson, when they need a quote from someone about women's issues, they call you."

Gardiner has been accepted at Harvard Law School, but she has deferred to work at McKinsey & Company in Washington, D.C., as a consultant.

"I think one ought not be trying to formulate public policy when one's only claim to fame is that she's graduated from college," Gardiner says. "If you've never really paid taxes..., if you've never paid rent on an apartment, if you've never bought a car,...I don't think you're qualified to be making public policy."

Those close to her say Gardiner never does anything without such planning.

"Avery is very directed," Turner says. "She is very goal-oriented, and she's very methodical."

Gardiner's mom, Anne, says Avery got up every morning at 4:30--a very cold hour in Maine--to deliver papers.

"I knew then that she was a determined young person," Anne says.

Gardiner is even driven on vacation. The summer after their first year at the College, Gardiner and her former roommate Carrie S. Gunther '97-'96 (who is now at Cornell Medical School) spent nine days in Paris.

"We saw such a huge amount," Gunther says. "The two of us were up at like 8 every morning and we were just going until night. We wanted to see everything we could conceivably see in Paris and the vicinity in 10 days or under.

"I liked traveling with her because she didn't want to sit around," Gunther continues. "She wanted to see everything."

Gardiner's younger sister Kate, a student at Colby College, says she hoped that when Avery came home from college she would relax.

"But she comes home and stays in her Harvard world," Kate says. "She still stays on top of everything. At Christmas she's always studying for [her exams] whereas I would be procrastinating."

Gardiner does enjoy relaxing outside in the wilderness, going canoeing and camping with her boyfriend Anestis and her family, which also includes older brother Marsh and little sister Elizabeth.

Anestis says Gardiner, a tall, slim blonde whose usual attire is dark, tailored slacks and a blazer, is happy to put on jeans or shorts and hang out outside.

"She's comfortable paddling along for a long time," he says. "She's more relaxed."

Gardiner says growing up in Maine made for an "outdoorsy" childhood. The family owns two canoes.

"The best part of living next to the capitol was [that] when they plowed the parking lot they put all the snow down into our yard," she says. "So we had the best backyard for sledding."

Gardiner also eats a lot of Tabasco Sauce. Through her mother, whose maiden name is McIlhenny, Gardiner is a direct descendant of the inventor of the spicy pepper condiment. The family still makes the sauce on Avery Island, Louisiana, after which Gardiner was named.

Walking through her house--where she relaxed for several days last month after finishing her exams--Gardiner passes her sister's Tabasco T-shirt in the laundry room; the framed print from the 125th anniversary, "which we all celebrated," on the wall; and the empty bottle of garlic Tabasco from dinner.

She has found the Harvard Dining Services food--and Cambridge's latenight pizza--a little bland.

"Freshman year I didn't have any in my room," Gardiner says. "I stole a bottle from the Union."

Though named for an island in Louisiana, Gardiner is definitely a native Mainer. The state has a dialect all its own. Gardiner describes people--such as her mother--who've moved to Maine from other parts of the country as "from away."

Her sister Kate suggests that Augusta may not have provided Avery enough political stimulation as a child.

"The rest of our community wasn't really [politically-oriented]," Kate says. "In high school she was editor of the yearbook; she took on leadership positions but they weren't as politically geared. It was harder for her to do that here."

But Gardiner disagrees.

"We've got political history," she says. "We elect women like there was no tomorrow."Photo Courtesy of Martha StewartAVERY W. GARDINER '97, who hopes to occupy the White House someday, speaks with a current occupant, HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON.

"I just sort of out of the blue said, 'Avery, what do you think you want to be in life?'" says her father. "She says, 'Well, Dad, I used to think I wanted to be president. But now I think I want to be chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.' It was an outrageous age to even be thinking about that."

"She was interested in adult issues from the time she was very, very small," Gardiner's mother says. "If we were having an adult party, she would be in the doorway listening to what was going on."

Gardiner's younger sister Kate says Avery was rarely rebellious. She got in trouble once in high school for taking issue with federal policy.

"She was sent to the principal's office in high school because she refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance," Kate says. "It was during the Gulf War, and she didn't believe in what the country was doing."

Gardiner made her mark in Augusta politics during her first and second years of high school, while also serving as class president. She took on the city council over school budget cuts.

"It was pretty drastic. They were cutting busing, cutting all extracurriculars, no field trips, no new textbooks," she says. "My sister, when she was a freshman in high school, learned about the Soviet Union, which was not then the Soviet Union. But that's what the book said."

Gardiner spoke at city council and school board meetings and invited the city councillors to Cony High School for the day.

"Only one of them took me up on the offer, but I showed him around the school and told him how we really needed the money and how it was important," she says. "And I got myself in the paper."

She also made quite an impact on the community.

"There was a state legislator by the name of Dan Hickey, a wonderful man, and I helped on his reelection campaign one year," Gardiner says. "Because I had so much publicity during this city council fight,...they asked me to do an endorsement. They ran a political ad with my smiling face. I couldn't even vote for him!"

Education is one of the issues Gardiner says she'd like to tackle in her career. While others have political aspirations for her, she herself says she's interested in formulating public policy.

She does, though, she admit that the positions of mayor of Boston or state governor are appealing.

Gardiner says she's interested in matters of "social equity": fighting crime, balancing work and family and working for women's rights.

Those who know her say Gardiner really is interested in issues and not only political power.

"Avery is just so interested in ideas, interested in what's happening in the world," her mother says.

At Harvard, she has focused on extracurriculars involving politics and government. She was a member of Model Congress and taught middle school kids in Dorchester as part of the Harvard Program for International Education. In 1996, she served as chair of the IOP's Student Advisory Committee.

Her boyfriend of three years, Matt Anestis '95, who is also a former SAC chair, recalls Gardiner's first meeting at the IOP as a first-year.

"She raised her hand and she said, 'Why don't you do this?' We all looked at each other and said, 'I guess we should be doing that,'" Anestis says.

"She's a very striking, assertive, confident person. She wasn't afraid to get up and ask questions at the IOP from the moment she walked in," he says.

As chair of the SAC, Gardiner has been criticized by some IOP insiders for being too distant and allowing backbiting and infighting among the students. But no one was willing to go on the record with their comments.

Turner says the situation wasn't really any different from any other student organizations.

"She and I didn't always agree on everything, but I always found her to be very willing to try to work out differences in a reasonable way," Turner says. "She always maintains good spirits.... She'll always be able to rally the troops. She's often the force behind things that you may not even have known originated with her."

Gardiner says that one of her goals as SAC chair was to broaden the appeal of the IOP.

"I feel like I did have an important impact down there," she says. "Most importantly, we shifted direction a lot, away from focusing on political junkies who are already interested to sparking political interest in those who didn't think politics touched their lives."

In particular, she worked hard on the IOP's fall "political Lollapalooza," HYPE '96.

Not surprisingly, Gardiner's extracurricular focus has also formed the basis of her academic career.

An economics concentrator, Gardiner combined her major with her true passion to write a thesis on the economic determinants of voting behavior in presidential and gubernatorial elections from 1915 to the present.

She also authored a widely-cited study of women's leadership in extracurricular organizations. She says that sometimes that's all she's remembered for--a fact which may reflect the results of her study.

"Once you speak once on women's issues," Gardiner says, "The Crimson, when they need a quote from someone about women's issues, they call you."

Gardiner has been accepted at Harvard Law School, but she has deferred to work at McKinsey & Company in Washington, D.C., as a consultant.

"I think one ought not be trying to formulate public policy when one's only claim to fame is that she's graduated from college," Gardiner says. "If you've never really paid taxes..., if you've never paid rent on an apartment, if you've never bought a car,...I don't think you're qualified to be making public policy."

Those close to her say Gardiner never does anything without such planning.

"Avery is very directed," Turner says. "She is very goal-oriented, and she's very methodical."

Gardiner's mom, Anne, says Avery got up every morning at 4:30--a very cold hour in Maine--to deliver papers.

"I knew then that she was a determined young person," Anne says.

Gardiner is even driven on vacation. The summer after their first year at the College, Gardiner and her former roommate Carrie S. Gunther '97-'96 (who is now at Cornell Medical School) spent nine days in Paris.

"We saw such a huge amount," Gunther says. "The two of us were up at like 8 every morning and we were just going until night. We wanted to see everything we could conceivably see in Paris and the vicinity in 10 days or under.

"I liked traveling with her because she didn't want to sit around," Gunther continues. "She wanted to see everything."

Gardiner's younger sister Kate, a student at Colby College, says she hoped that when Avery came home from college she would relax.

"But she comes home and stays in her Harvard world," Kate says. "She still stays on top of everything. At Christmas she's always studying for [her exams] whereas I would be procrastinating."

Gardiner does enjoy relaxing outside in the wilderness, going canoeing and camping with her boyfriend Anestis and her family, which also includes older brother Marsh and little sister Elizabeth.

Anestis says Gardiner, a tall, slim blonde whose usual attire is dark, tailored slacks and a blazer, is happy to put on jeans or shorts and hang out outside.

"She's comfortable paddling along for a long time," he says. "She's more relaxed."

Gardiner says growing up in Maine made for an "outdoorsy" childhood. The family owns two canoes.

"The best part of living next to the capitol was [that] when they plowed the parking lot they put all the snow down into our yard," she says. "So we had the best backyard for sledding."

Gardiner also eats a lot of Tabasco Sauce. Through her mother, whose maiden name is McIlhenny, Gardiner is a direct descendant of the inventor of the spicy pepper condiment. The family still makes the sauce on Avery Island, Louisiana, after which Gardiner was named.

Walking through her house--where she relaxed for several days last month after finishing her exams--Gardiner passes her sister's Tabasco T-shirt in the laundry room; the framed print from the 125th anniversary, "which we all celebrated," on the wall; and the empty bottle of garlic Tabasco from dinner.

She has found the Harvard Dining Services food--and Cambridge's latenight pizza--a little bland.

"Freshman year I didn't have any in my room," Gardiner says. "I stole a bottle from the Union."

Though named for an island in Louisiana, Gardiner is definitely a native Mainer. The state has a dialect all its own. Gardiner describes people--such as her mother--who've moved to Maine from other parts of the country as "from away."

Her sister Kate suggests that Augusta may not have provided Avery enough political stimulation as a child.

"The rest of our community wasn't really [politically-oriented]," Kate says. "In high school she was editor of the yearbook; she took on leadership positions but they weren't as politically geared. It was harder for her to do that here."

But Gardiner disagrees.

"We've got political history," she says. "We elect women like there was no tomorrow."Photo Courtesy of Martha StewartAVERY W. GARDINER '97, who hopes to occupy the White House someday, speaks with a current occupant, HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON.