biography

Kinney has worked at the highest levels of the private, public, political, and nonprofit sectors. Her roles have included:

• Deputy National Finance Chair, DNC
• National Co-Chair, Women for Harris 2024
• Senior Advisor, GETTING-Plurality Network, Harvard Kennedy School
• General Manager, Microsoft's Corporate Strategy team
• Senior Strategist on two US presidential campaigns
• White House Fellow with Vice President Gore
• Counsel to US Attorney General Janet Reno
• President of nonprofit named "Social Entrepreneur of the Year" at Davos
• Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia

Kinney is also an honors graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School. 

Her writing draws on hidden-in-plain-sight insights from across the private, public and nonprofit sectors, offering elegant and creative solutions to today's most vexing problems. 

Thought Leader. Kinney has authored guest essays for Politico, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Business Insider, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Christian Science Monitor, and The Jerusalem Post, among others. She is also a prominent national and international speaker and has appeared live on NPR, NBC, Fox News Channel, and many other outlets.

In 2007, Kinney collaborated with Mark Penn on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling book "Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes." The New York Times called the book "unrelentingly fascinating" and said it was "the perfect bible for a game of not-so-trivial pursuits concerning the hidden sociological truths of modern times." Microtrends was translated into more than 15 languages. For a year after the book's publication, Mark and Kinney co-wrote a regular "Microtrends" column in The Wall Street Journal. 

Business Executive. Kinney spent almost nine years at Microsoft, most of that time co-leading the company's Corporate Strategy team. Click here and here for her innovative proposals regarding AI governance, and here for her essay on the (inadequate) role of technology companies in advancing human relationships. Before joining Microsoft in 2013, Kinney ran Zalesne LLC, a consulting practice focused on CEO positioning. Her clients included CEOs of Fortune 50 companies, mid-cap companies and tech start-ups. 

Public Servant. Kinney founded and chairs the Women's Executive Network, an initiative that brings top women leaders in business and politics together to support Democratic political leaders. Click here for her Open Letter to America's Working Women, co-signed by 45 top female executives. In addition to serving as a DNC Deputy Finance Chair and Co-Chair of Women for Harris, Kinney was also a Senior Strategist on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, Hillary's 2006 landslide Senate re-election, and the successful 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election. Kinney served as Counsel to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno at the U.S. Department of Justice and in the Clinton White House. Before that, she was an Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia.  

Social Entrepreneur. Kinney served as the Executive Vice President for the U.S. at Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Life on Campus. Click here for her article on student engagement as social entrepreneurship. She also served as deputy director and president of College Summit (now called Peer Forward), which was named “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” at Davos. Click here for her New York Times op-ed, "High School's Last Test." 

Kinney has also served on numerous boards of trustees (see sidebar).