Majority Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives. There, she worked as a member of his leadership staff. This role lasted four years. After that, she took a job with the Republican National Committee where she was Director of Congressional Affairs and helped to find positions for Republicans in lobbying firms. As part of this role she became involved in the George W. Bush presidential campaign, 2000. First marriage and family Powell married Richard C. Powell on January 10, 1998. A public relations professional, he became a managing director of the Washington-based Quinn Gillespie & Associates and later became employed by Teneo as the president of Teneo Strategy. Following the marriage she began to use his last name professionally. The couple has two daughters, born in 2001 and 2006. In 2007 the couple had purchased a $3.85 million condominium apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Bush administration White House Personnel Office While working at the RNC, Powell was spotted by Clay Johnson III, who would come to be in charge of hiring for the George W. Bush administration. The day after the election Johnson called Powell regarding the presidential transition. Once in office, Johnson took her on as a Deputy Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel. Beginning in January 2003, Johnson moved up and elsewhere in the administration and Powell took on his role, thereby serving as the Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel, a senior staff position at the White House. In this role, she was responsible for assisting the President on the appointments of the cabinet, subcabinet and ambassadorial positions across the U.S. Government. She had a staff of 35 reporting to her; once the second term of the Bush presidency began in January 2005, was part of hiring some 4,000 people. She participated in some of the recommendations process as well as processing the applications. At age 29, she was the youngest person ever to hold this position. Some of the recommendations she made for the U.S. State Department put her in good stead with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Department of State In March 2005, Powell was nominated as Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, an assignment that included becoming an ambassador to the Arabic-speaking world. News of the nomination landed on the front page of Al-Ahram and made her notable in Egypt. Powell served in that position from