Anita B. McBride (born in Bridgeport, Connecticut) is the Executive-in-Residence in the Department of Government at American University. She has had a life-long career in government, beginning working under the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations as the director of White House personnel. She has previously worked for the State Department and RAND. She was Chief of Staff to the First Lady Laura Bush and planned 67 trips in 4 years to all corners of the globe.

McBride graduated from University of Connecticut with a Bachelor's degreein International Studies. She also studied International relations and foreign languages at the University of Florence in Italy.

McBride served as Assistant to President George W. Bush and as Chief of Staff to First Lady Laura Bush from 2005 to 2009.

Also under President George W. Bush, McBride served as a special assistant for White House Management; as senior advisor in the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Organizations and as the State Department's White House liaison.

She is a member of several organizations, including the U.S. Afghan Women's Council, the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and the White House Historical Association.

In addition, she co-founded RAND's African First Ladies Initiative and Fellowship program to partner with first ladies in African countries to support their efforts to make impacts in health and education industries.

On April 14, 2011, McBride participated in a C-SPAN video conference students participating from the George Mason University with Steve Scully, the political editor for the C-SPAN networks, and students from the Georgetown University and Purdue University.

She is also a frequent commentator on network and cable news and contributes to several publications includingPolitico **andThe Daily Beast .