FIVE ALL-STARS Evan Kohlmann L'04 Eric Rothschild L'93 Miguel Rodriguez C'94 L'99 Derek Pew L'93 Aretha Delight Davis L'97

Working for Clinton fits Rodriguez to a “B,” for bipartisan. Married to a Republican, he is comfortable crafting policy for the moderate Clinton, who shocked Democrats, not to mention conservatives, by joining forces with her husband’s old tormentor, Newt Gingrich, to push new health care and military readiness proposals.

While Clinton learned to calibrate her positions and build coalitions in the corridors of Congress, Rodriguez discovered the art of compromise in the mediation clinic at Penn Law School.

“I look back on that as not only developing certain skills, but also as a reflection of my own personality,” he says. “So much of legislating is trying to reach a compromise and understand another person’s point of view and trying to find that middle ground, as opposed to really digging in your heels. The skills that I took from that clinic, I still use today.”