Juli Ellyn Briskman ( Klyce; born March 16, 1967) is an American politician, marketing analyst, and journalist. She is a

supervisor A supervisor, or lead, (also known as foreman, boss, overseer, facilitator, monitor, area coordinator, line-manager or sometimes gaffer) is the job title of a lower-level management position that is primarily based on authority over workers or ...

for the Algonkian District of

Loudoun County, Virginia Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. Loudoun County's seat is Leesburg. Loudoun ...

. Briskman garnered international attention for flipping off then-President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

in Sterling, Virginia, as he returned from a golfing trip in 2017. She once again received international attention when she was elected to the

Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Loudoun County, Virginia is divided into eight magisterial districts: Algonkian, Ashburn, Blue Ridge, Broad Run, Catoctin, Dulles, Leesburg, and Sterling. The magisterial districts each elect one supervisor to the Board of Supervisors whi ...

in 2019.

Early life

Briskman is originally from the Columbus, Ohio, metropolitan area and graduated from Worthington High School, where she was a field hockey athlete, in 1985. She graduated from The

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

in 1990, with a degree in journalism. She worked for the school newspaper, ''

The Lantern ''The Lantern'' is an independent daily newspaper in Columbus, Ohio, by students at Ohio State University. It is one of the largest campus newspapers in the United States, reaching a circulation of 15,000. Copies of the paper are free and avail ...

''. She received an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

Carey Business School The Johns Hopkins Carey Business School (also Carey Business School or simply Carey) is the graduate business school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. It was established in 2007 and offers full-t ...

in 1998.

Career

Briskman interned for the ''

Kuwait Times ''Kuwait Times'' is an English-language daily published in Kuwait. It is the first English language paper in the Persian Gulf region. History and profile ''Kuwait Times'' was founded by Yousuf Saleh Alyan in 1961. The 36-page broadsheet provid ...

'', where she made news for escaping to

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

as the Iraqis invaded Kuwait. She worked at the

U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other ...

as a community liaison officer for eight years, including embassies in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

and Almaty,

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. After working at the State Department, she was in the admissions and marketing departments at Village Green Day School. She was a

marketing analyst Marketing research is the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data about issues relating to marketing products and services. The goal is to identify and assess how changing elements of the marketing mix i ...

at several companies until the beginning of 2019, including as

chief marketing officer A chief marketing officer (CMO), also called a global marketing officer or marketing director, or chief brand officer, is a corporate executive responsible for managing marketing activities in an organization. Whilst historically these titles may ...

of a health-care company in

Chantilly, Virginia Chantilly is a census-designated place (CDP) in western Fairfax County, Virginia, Fairfax County, Virginia. The population was 24,301 as of the 2020 census. Chantilly is named after an early-19th-century mansion and farm, which in turn took the ...

. She received a certificate in

digital marketing Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development duri ...

from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

in 2017.

Middle finger controversy

On October 28, 2017, Briskman was riding her bike in Sterling, Virginia, when the Trump motorcade passed her as he departed Trump National Golf Club Washington, D.C. She flipped her middle finger as Trump rode by, which was caught on camera by a photographer. Briskman had worked as a marketing analyst for Akima, a government contractor, for eight months until she was fired for using the viral photo as her

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

cover photo and her

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

profile picture. She sued for wrongful termination as another employee also had "obscene content", which it was her job to flag, on his social media accounts, but was allowed to remove it. Her claim was not upheld in court because Virginia's at-will employment laws do not cover free speech, but the judge granted Briskman the full severance pay she was owed.

2019 election

In 2019, Briskman, a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

, was elected to the Algonkian District seat of the

, defeating eight-year incumbent Suzanne M. Volpe. She described herself as running on policies such as environmentalism, education, and women's rights, rather than the notice she received for flipping off the president. The ''Washington Post'' described her victory as "fabulous revenge", and Gerard Baker of London's ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' noted that it highlighted President Trump's perceived issues with suburban American women.

Personal life

Briskman moved to Loudoun County in the early 2000s. She is the mother of two with her ex-husband. Briskman has also worked part-time as a

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consci ...

instructor.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Briskman, Juli 1967 births Living people 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women writers American marketing people American women journalists American yoga teachers County supervisors in Virginia Johns Hopkins Carey Business School alumni Journalists from Ohio Journalists from Virginia Marketing women Ohio State University School of Communication alumni People from Columbus, Ohio People from Sterling, Virginia People from Worthington, Ohio Politicians from Columbus, Ohio Protests against Donald Trump United States Department of State officials Virginia Democrats Women in Virginia politics Writers from Columbus, Ohio