You’ve since worked in different administration posts, and now twice as CEO of the convention. What advice do you have for women who want to create change in a similar way?

"I would say to them, 'Never underestimate your ability to make a difference. You don’t have to be a congressman or a senator or a judge to make a difference. You can make a difference every day at every level. Figure out the issue that you care about or the neighborhood that you care about or the policy that you care about and dive in. Learn as much as you can, become an expert, and get to work. There’s no lack of work, and nobody stands in the way of the hard workers. In politics, everybody loves a hard worker.' My father loves to say, 'When a student is ready, a teacher will appear.'…When you’re ready, teachers will present themselves, mentors will present themselves. Learn as much as you can, even if it means you go to a meeting and you don’t say anything. Sit and listen, soak it up.

"Decide to be engaged. Don’t sit on the sidelines. Don’t be a benchwarmer — get involved in the game of life, the game of politics, at whatever level makes sense for you. Some of us will run for office. Run, run hard and we will help you, but for some of us, that’s not our thing. I don’t want to run for office; I’m a good background player. That’s my gift to the party, but I had to learn it. I spent a lot of time making coffee, sending faxes, and clearing the Xerox machine, sitting on the wall in the meeting and listening to things and thinking, That was dumb, I’ve got a better idea. But I learned… The most important thing is, be willing to do the work, be willing to put the time in. Particularly in politics, and for women especially, you cannot move ahead if you haven’t done the work. We as women don’t have the luxury that men have of seeming to just step out from nowhere and suddenly rise. We have to work harder. It’s not fair, but it’s true."

I heard you love Beyoncé. Any chance she’ll be joining us in Philadelphia?

"I believe she’s in Sweden on the Formation tour, but we're going to see what we can do to get her to fly over for the night or so. We’ll see!"

Editor's note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.