Martha S. Pope

Martha S. Pope is an American public servant who participated in friendship initiatives in Northern Ireland that plus to the fine Friday Agreement in 1998. She moreover served as the sergeant at arms of the United States Senate from 1991 to 1994, the first woman to retain the role. She briefly served as Secretary of the United States Senate for a few months in 1994 before she was asked to back up in the Northern Ireland good relations process. Pope is the isolated person in the records of the U.S. Senate to retain both the important Secretary and Sergeant of Arms positions. She was as a consequence Chief of Staff to Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell. She is as a consequence a pastel artist.

Pope was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania but grew occurring in Connecticut. She received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Connecticut in 1967, where she majored in sociology and anthropology and minored in art past earning a master’s degree in art education at Southern Connecticut State University.

After teaching art for five years in elementary and junior high school, Pope moved to Washington, D.C., to play in for Senator Gary Hart from 1975 to 1977. In 1977, Pope left Capitol Hill to appear in for the National Wildlife Federation, only to compensation to the Hill in 1979 to law for Senator John Culver. When Culver aimless his bid for reelection in 1980, Senator George J. Mitchell kept her upon at the Environment and Public Works Committee staff back hiring her first as his administrative partner in 1985 and the chief of staff in 1989 once he became majority leader. In 1989, the second edition of the The Almanac of the Unelected characterize her as "glue - she makes things work."

In 1991, Mitchell had Pope appointed Sergeant at Arms to replace the retiring Henry K. Giugni. While serving as Sergeant at Arms, Pope updated the Senate's antiquated dress code in 1993 to permit women to wears pants upon the Senate floor to make the Senate dress code rules more inline bearing in mind current rules used the event world, in welcome legislatures, and in the House of Representatives. After Walter J. Stewart announced his retirement as Secretary to the Senate in 1994, Mitchell had made arrangements consequently that Pope would succeed Stewart as Secretary prior to Mitchell's own planned retirement from the Senate.

In January 1995, Pope left her job at the Senate to support her former boss, the newly appointed United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland and former Senator Mitchell, as Senior Advisor for the Northern Ireland Peace Negotiations until July 1998, after the peace concurrence went in effect.

In salutation of "her outstanding contribution to harmony talks, which led to the fine Friday Agreement", Pope was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) from Ulster University upon July 4, 2019.

In 2001, Pope became a advocate of the Hofstra University board of trustees.