Kansas University alumnus Marlon Marshall is now one of the top staffers on the Hillary Clinton campaign, as well as the highest-ranking black staffer on any presidential campaign, according to a recent national news article (and he’s routinely mentioned in many).

Marshall, 36, is director of state campaigns and political engagement for Clinton.

Marshall attended KU from 1997 to 2001, finishing a couple outstanding credit hours online some years later to earn his degree in communication studies, he said. As a senior, Marshall was KU’s student body vice president, alongside student body president Ben Walker.

The Journal-World talked to Marshall by phone this week from Brooklyn, N.Y., where he now lives, about his career path, his professional aspirations and his thoughts on diversity discussions at KU and other universities nationwide.

Contributed photo

Marlon Marshall pictured during a 2014 conference while working at the White House.

What have you been doing since leaving KU?

Marshall’s post-college career started behind the bar at Brothers and Fatso’s, where he also DJ’d on weekends, he said. That was fun, he said, and helped him save up a little money until he was hired in 2004 to work on the John Kerry campaign in Missouri.

“I’ve been on the campaign trail ever since,” he said.

Marshall’s resume includes working for the Kansas Democratic Party on Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ re-election, campaigning for U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin in Maryland, and working in Nevada as field director for Clinton’s first presidential run.

Following the primary election, Marshall joined President Barack Obama’s team as a general election director in Missouri, and later became deputy national field director for Obama’s re-election campaign.

He worked at the White House as special assistant to the president and principal deputy director for the White House Office of Public Engagement from 2013 until earlier this year. He also founded a firm, 270 Strategies (named for the number of electoral votes needed to win the presidency), that provides grassroots consulting for political campaigns and nonprofits.

What are Clinton’s plans for Kansas, and what role do you play?

“It is something that’s very, very important to us,” Marshall said. “We will be organizing there, have already begun. You’ve seen us weigh in to things that are happening in Kansas.” (i.e: A statement speaking out against Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s efforts to prosecute voter fraud.)

Marshall said he oversees a team that supports the Clinton campaign’s state directors as they propose strategies and work on relationships with local officials and community organizations.

What are your career aspirations?

To answer this question, Marshall begins by explaining some about where he came from. He grew up in St. Louis. His dad was a custodian and his mother a teacher in inner-city schools, though Marshall himself attended school in a more affluent district. The level of resources between the two districts was very different, he said.

“I do this work so that young people, with a particular emphasis on young people of color, can have the same opportunities as everyone else,” he said. “That’s my aspiration, to make sure that we fix those inequities ... Whatever path that takes me on is a path I will be on, and right now that path is making sure we elect Hillary Clinton.”

During the past week’s diversity related conversations at KU, several black students have complained about themselves or their peers being singled out to give the so-called black opinion in class, Student Senate or other discussions. A recent CNN story described you as the go-to person for Clinton’s questions about addressing black voters. How do you react to that?

“People definitely come to me for those things,” Marshall said. “I embrace it, because I want to make sure that my experiences — and not just mine but the rest of the African-American staff that we have on this campaign — are reflected in our overall values.”

Marshall said his campaign team was more than 30 percent diverse, and that he’s glad to share his own experience being African-American.

“That’s why you have a diverse team,” he said “If you have a team that has all experienced the same thing, you’re not going to have thoughtful discussion.”

Any other reflections on diversity and activism at KU?

One of Marshall’s initiatives as student body vice president was working to improve minority recruitment and retention, he said, “knowing that if you have a diverse student body you will be more prepared for life once you leave the university.”

That work taught him a lot about organizing, he said.

Working with student organizations — minority and nonminority groups — and then with the KU administration, they developed a strategy, he said.

“One of the things I think we were successful at then was building consensus and letting folks know how important this was moving forward,” he said. “Those conversations that are happening today are doing the same thing, but also being honest about the experiences that people are feeling.”

Why did you choose KU?

Marshall always liked KU basketball. Then, his junior year of high school, he visited a friend on the KU campus “and fell in love immediately,” he said. “The atmosphere, the campus, it was amazing.”

Once he got to KU, Marshall said getting involved was key to his success.

One example: Marshall switched majors a couple times before deciding on communications, but he started out in engineering, where he joined the National Society of Black Engineers.

“I had a connection,” he said, and the group was empowering. “They were like, ‘You, as a black male, could be an engineer.’”

Marshall said he joined Student Senate as the engineering senator, and ultimately became student body vice president. He credits numerous KU administrators and teachers with supporting him along the way.

“I love my university,” he said. “I wouldn’t be here without that experience.”

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