Hannah F. Smolar joined the Brennan Center in 2021. She helps lead the Center’s engagement with major donors and family foundations, collaborating with program and executive leadership to cultivate and maintain partnerships that fuel the Center’s work.
Before joining the Brennan Center, Smolar oversaw the major gifts program at Common Cause, a 1.5M-member, nonpartisan democracy reform organization. Previously, she worked in development at Columbia University Medical Center and on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign in Colorado.
A passionate advocate for progressive change, Smolar volunteers for political campaigns and founded and for four years led NARAL Pro-Choice America’s New York Action Council, an organizing group she now advises. Born and raised in the Philadelphia area, she enjoys morning exercise, Ben and Jerry’s, and tending to her growing collection of houseplants. Smolar is a proud graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University.