Madeleine Elise Westerhout (born October 8, 1990) is the former Director of Oval Office Operations at the White House from February to August 2019.[1] Prior to that, from 2017 to 2019, she served as the Personal Secretary to U.S. PresidentDonald Trump. She was fired on August 29, 2019, after Trump learned she had shared details of the Trump family and Oval Office operations with reporters during an off the record dinner earlier that month.[2][3]
Early life
Westerhout was born in Newport Beach, California, and grew up primarily in Irvine, California. She studied at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina, receiving a BA degree in political science in 2013.[4][5] After her graduation, she moved to Washington, D.C., and worked as a fitness trainer in the Pure Barre gym of Carrie Rezabek Dorr.[6]
Career
In the 2012 presidential election, Westerhout worked for the campaign of Mitt Romney. In 2013, she worked for candidate John R
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For the past fifteen years I have focused my camera on the vacant architecture of America’s nineteenth and twentieth centuries, buildings now abandoned to a waning industrial era.
These structures hold the echoes of time and memory, as they reveal a pervasive beauty, carried on the light; within the shadows, the zeitgeist of a nation resides.
Photography has the means to reach deeply into the psyche…in the vicinity of the heart chakra, I encompass vast spaces, often in the humblest of places.
Each building I have photographed has a distinct character; all have imbued me with a sense of reverence.
The creation of large-scale works invites the viewer to enter the image. True to the initial exposure, the photograph speaks directly.
Katherine received her B.A. in Art/Photography from San Francisco State University and began exhibiting in the mid 1990's. She has shown widely in the United States and abroad, and was represented by Electric Works (formerly, Trillium Press) in San Francisco. Among her collectors are the San Jose Museum of Art; Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University; Alameda County Public Art Collection; San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, San Francisco State University; San Francisco Zen Center; Mumm, Napa Valley, CA; and Adobe Systems, San Jose.
In early 2012, Katherine had her third opening at Electric Works in San Francisco, which was well received and reviewed by Art Critic, Kenneth Baker. Soon after, the Public Utilities Commission acquired two of Katherine’s prints for its new building in San Francisco’s Civic Center.
In 2012, Architecture for Humanity selected Katherine Westerhout as part of a world-wide design competition to re-envision the future of abandoned, closed and decommissioned military sites. The team was