At the state level, she also served as chief of staff to the speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives. Schmidt was instrumental in federal legislation regarding income tax, the IRS, class action lawsuit reform, intellectual property, and veterans’ benefits, as well as state legislation regarding criminal law, prescription drugs, bullying, and youth suicide prevention. Immediately following law school, she practiced for two years with the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Dyer, Ellis and Joseph, which has since been acquired by Blank Rome LLC.

Schmidt was the anchor and producer of the public affairs television show, “Ask Your Legislator,” which ran statewide on Kansas Public Television stations, and she co-anchored the live broadcast of the Kansas governor’s annual State of the State speech until the broadcast was discontinued in 2016.

Schmidt served two terms as senior fellow at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics. She most recently was the co-chair of the Kansas Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force created by the Kansas Attorney General and The Tower Mental Health Foundation, and a strong advocate for legislation passed in 2019 that created the position of Kansas Youth Suicide Prevention Coordinator. She holds a law degree from the University of Kansas School of Law, where she was managing editor of the Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy, and a B.A. in political science, emphasis in international relations from Texas Christian University.

Examples of her work include:

• Creating and building the most comprehensive law school program in the United States that gives law students from a Midwestern university a running start for a career in Washington, D.C. (University of Kansas Law School’s Sixth Semester Program). This program sends graduating third year students to Washington, D.C. to live, learn, network, and launch their legal careers there. It is one of KU Law School’s most successful recruiting tools. Ten percent of the graduating class participated in the program in 2022.

• Creating and building a comprehensive year-long advocacy fellows program that successfully trained healthcare stakeholders to advocate at all levels of government, work with the media, organize grassroots, and abide by relevant laws (Sunflower Foundation’s Advocacy Training Program). The goal was to train a greater number and wider array of health care stakeholders to be effective state and federal advocates. The goal was achieved.

• Co-creating and co-chairing a university’s task force of university and community stakeholders that created by consensus a ten-year strategic plan. This strategic plan’s recommendations were largely implemented resulting in a new Arts Center, new fitness center, and more updates that resulted in it being a healthy university today. (Pittsburg State University’s Second Century Task Force).

• Building and co-chairing a statewide youth suicide prevention task force that resulted in the passage of significant legislation addressing this tragic epidemic, including creating a Youth Suicide Prevention coordinator in the AG’s office (Kansas Attorney General’s Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force). Kansas Governor Laura Kelly praised creation of this office, calling it one of the AG’s greatest accomplishments.

• Creating and moderating two study group speakers’ series while serving as Senior Fellow at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics. They were titled “Women in Politics: Career Stories” and “Gender, Race and Religion in Politics,” and included speakers from across the United States.

• Creating and teaching university curricula including courses on Congress, the U.S. Judiciary, Politics and New Media, Gender and Politics, U.S. Constitutional Law, Leadership, a Legislative Simulation, and more.

• Building and teaching a comparative law course with professors from four countries offered online by Turkey’s Bahcesehir University.