Women of Influence

Anne Hathaway is president and chief executive officer of Hathaway Strategies, an innovative grassroots public affairs firm headquartered in Indianapolis. Anne has extensive public service and political experience as a member of the George H.W. Bush White House, U.S. Treasury Department and the Republican National Committee.

In August 2023, Hathaway was tapped by Governor Eric Holcomb to serve as chairwoman of the Indiana Republican State Committee and was the first female chair in the organization’s history. Since 2018, Anne has also served as Indiana’s National Committeewoman on the Republican National Committee. She served as chairman of the Committee on Arrangements for the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and as co-chair of the Temporary Presidential Debates Committee. She previously served as chair of the 2024 and 2028 Republican National Convention Site Selection Committees.

Anne served at the White House as Assistant to the Vice President and Director of Scheduling and Public Liaison for Vice President Quayle, was Chief of Staff and Midwest Regional Political Director for the Republican National Committee, Program Director for the 2012 Republican National Convention, and was Executive Director of the Indiana House Republican Campaign Committee.

Anne currently serves as executive director of the Richard G. Lugar Excellence in Public Service Series, which has trained nearly 700 Hoosier women to engage in public service and politics. Sheis also deeply involved in local and nonprofit leadership, serving as president of the Columbia Club, and on the boards of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and its executive committee; the Indy Chamber and its Business Advocacy Committee; the Economic Club of Indiana and as past program chair; and the Illinois 4-H Foundation.

For four years in a row, 2022-2025, Anne has been selected as one of the Indianapolis Business Journal’s 250, a list of the state’s most impactful and influential business and community leaders. She was recognized as a Sagamore of the Wabash by Governor Eric Holcomb in 2024.

Other awards and honors include the Career Achievement Award from the University of Illinois College of Agriculture, being named an Indianapolis Business Journal Woman of Influence and to POLITICO’s Top 50 Politicos to Watch, Torchbearer Award Winner from the Indiana Commission for Women, the Lugar Series Nancy A. Maloley Public Service Award, the 4-HHouse Distinguished Alumni Award, the Iron Jawed Angel Award from the National Excellence in Public Service Series, and the National Association of Women Business Owners – Indianapolis Trailblazer Award.

Sue Ellspermann served as President of Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana from 2016-2025. Ivy Tech is the nation’s largest singly accredited statewide community college, serving nearly 200,000 students with more than 70 programs and 19 campuses across Indiana and online. More than 90,000 of these students are earning college credit while in high school, making Ivy Tech the nation’s largest NACEP accredited institution.

Ellspermann’s focus was to align programs and credentials to meet industry needs and ensure access, quality, and affordability to all Hoosiers. Under her leadership, Ivy Tech launched the first Industry 4.0 associate degree and Ivy+ Career Link, a transformative approach to career development services. Ellspermann led the development of Ivy Tech’s new strategic plan, Higher Education at the Speed of Life, which focuses on scale, innovation, and agility to ensure student success and meet Indiana’s talent upskilling needs with a vision of 50,000 completions awarded each year aligned to Indiana’s economy.

Prior to leading Ivy Tech, Ellspermann served as Indiana’s 50th Lieutenant Governor. In this capacity, she served as President of the Senate, Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and oversaw six state agencies. Ellspermann co-chaired the Blue Ribbon Panel on Transportation Infrastructure and led trade missions to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China.

Ellspermann represented District 74 in rural southwest Indiana in the state House of Representatives from 2010 to 2012. From 2006 to 2012, Ellspermann served as the founding Director of the Center of Applied Research and Economic Development at the University of Southern Indiana.

Ellspermann’s educational and workforce development experience is extensive. As Lieutenant Governor, she served as vice chair of the Indiana Career Council, tasked to align Indiana’s education and workforce development system to meet employer needs. She also served on the Indiana State Workforce Investment Board. As a legislator, Ellspermann served on Commerce and Labor committees and co-authored Right-to-Work legislation that has since attracted robust economic development to Indiana. Nationally, she served on VAST, a Vision for American Science and Technology, and the American Society of Engineering Education Leadership Roundtable. Ellspermann is aHunt-Kean Leadership Fellow and Aspen Institute Presidential Scholar, renownedprograms focused on educational leadership and policymaking.  

Previously, Ellspermann owned and operated an independent consulting firm licensed in the training and facilitation of Simplex Creative Problem Solving and held operations and engineering positions at Frito-Lay, Michelin Tire Corporation, and General Motors.

Ellspermann holds a Ph.D. and M.S. from the University of Louisville in Industrial Engineering and a B.S. from Purdue University in Industrial Engineering. Ellspermann’s dissertation was recognized as a Top 50 management research article in 2007 by Emerald Management Review.

Ellspermann chaired the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership Board of Directors and served on the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet, Indiana Chamber and Indy Chamberboards. She continues to serve on the Applied Research Institute, Midstates Corridor RDA, and Center for Leadership Development boards, along with OneAmerica, German American Bancorp, Strada Education Foundation, and OFS corporate boards.  

She and her husband Jim Mehling have a blended family of four daughters, three sons-in-law, ten grandchildren, and live in their hometown of Ferdinand, Indiana.