Rebecca Hartsough, Ph.D.
Senior POLICY DIRECTOR
Rebecca Hartsough is the Senior Policy Director for Babbage Cofounder where she develops and manages legislative and executive policy strategies for the firm. With a Ph. D. in political science and quantitative methods, Rebecca specializes in translating complex issues and analytics into simple terms, building support for issues among policymakers and key leaders to communicate the ideal outcome, its value, and importance.
Rebecca has had success across a wide spectrum of clients and causes. Of note is her work as the leading lobbyist on 2023’s House Bill 9, establishing the $200 million GRANT program, which capitalizes on once-in-a-lifetime federal funding designed to revitalize economically disadvantaged areas across the Commonwealth. GRANT has since been identified by multiple federal agencies, national philanthropic foundations, and academic institutions as the gold standard for state match funding policy.
Rebecca was also instrumental in the development and funding of Public Health Transformation, which is the only statutorily state-funded public health program in the country. Just this year, Public Health Transformation received $148 million in appropriations, and has been nationally recognized as model legislation and programming for public health departments.
Immediately prior to her advocacy career, Hartsough worked as a data liaison and consultant at Embold Health, where she coordinated with officials at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, researchers and physicians at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and major insurance companies to produce Embold’s initial set of proprietary healthcare measures and quantitative metrics.
Additionally, Rebecca has had multiple appointments as a political science and public policy lecturer. She has had several government internships, the most significant being her time in the White House Correspondence Office of former First Lady Laura Bush.
A native Kentuckian, Rebecca left the Commonwealth to pursue her undergraduate, Masters, and Ph.D. education at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. She earned her doctorate in Political Science and Quantitative Methods, where she trained rigorously in statistics and predictive analytics as well in substantive political coursework. Her dissertation entitled, “Practical Politics: Explaining Delay in the Federal Judicial Appointment Process,” utilized statistical models and qualitative methods to identify previously unknown factors significant to slowing down and speeding up judicial nominations and confirmations.
Rebecca joined Babbage Cofounder in 2018 and was thrilled for the opportunity to work in politics and policy in her home state. An Owensboro native, she lives in the Crescent Hill neighborhood of Louisville with her husband. Rebecca has been named multiple times to the Notable Women in Kentucky Politics and Government list published by the Kentucky Gazette. She also appears regularly on KET, where she provides commentary on state and national politics.