After four years writing speeches for the president of the United States, one Hillsdale College alumna shifted to launch a communications firm.

Brittany Baldwin ’12 launched the website for her firm, Illuminate Consulting, last month. 

“I resisted having a website for a long time,” Baldwin said. “It reached a lot more people than I thought.”

She founded the firm after she left the White House in 2021. In the two and a half years since starting her own business, Baldwin said she has tried to focus on the distinguishing specialty she can provide her clients.

“Everyone who has their own company has to think about ‘What is their secret weapon?’” Baldwin said. “A big part of my secret weapon is being able to really get to know a client, see their strengths in a way that even they themselves can’t see, and then find a way to draw that out.”

Baldwin wrote speeches for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, including during his presidential campaign, before serving as a presidential speechwriter and special assistant to the president during the Trump administration. 

She credits her Hillsdale education with shaping her into a “sharper thinker” and a “sharper writer.”

“Reading great books, learning how to become a great writer, constantly being pushed to be excellent, developing a great work ethic, being around professors who inspired me, and learning how to become the woman of character that I wanted to be have all fundamentally shaped who I am and therefore how I work,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin said as a George Washington Fellow, she did not want to complete the Washington Hillsdale Internship Program, but found during her Heritage Foundation internship that she loved writing. In the fall of her senior year at Hillsdale, Baldwin took Advanced Writing with John J. Miller, director of the Dow Journalism Program.

“It was so different from every other class that I took at Hillsdale because, frankly, it was very practical,” Baldwin said. “We were getting very specific, very concrete feedback on our work, which I think made us better quickly.”

Miller arrived at Hillsdale during her senior year. Baldwin was one of his first students, Miller said.

“It was a delight to teach her and now to watch her flourish as a professional writer,” Miller said. “Anybody who needs the services of a wordsmith would be wise to look her up.”

An American studies major, Baldwin included Professor of History Brad Birzer among the professors who had the greatest impact on her education and character.

“Dr. Birzer had this incredible way of making history into a beautiful poetic story,” Baldwin said. “Not only did it teach me to love history even more than I already did, but it taught me the power of storytelling.”

Birzer said he greatly admires Baldwin.

“I think the absolute world of Brittany,” Birzer said. “She was not only one of the finest students I’ve encountered at Hillsdale — all my students are awesome — but she was an amazing friend and babysitter of my kids. I would trust her with the world.”