Coming Together: Kirby and Ann Hartley Met at Hillsdale and are Carving Out Separate Career Paths
Written by Doug Goodnough
Kirby and Ann Wunderlich Hartley were both English majors and members of the Hillsdale College Class of 2015.
It wasn’t until their junior year, however, that they even met. They had two English classes together, worked the same shift at the dining hall, and competed on the Hillsdale College Forensics (Speech and Debate) Team.
“We just kept running into each other,” Kirby said.
Despite the inauspicious beginning, the couple is now happily married and the parents of a three-year-old daughter. After living for several years in the Washington, D.C., area, they moved to Fort Worth, Texas, in the fall of 2022 to be closer to Kirby’s family. They each have successful careers, with Ann an award-winning video producer for the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, and Kirby a sales vice president at Telemet America, a financial market data company.
Ann, who graduated from Hillsdale with a double major in speech and English, said a career in video production was not what she envisioned after graduating.
“I was interested in law and communications,” she said, “but I wasn’t 100 percent sure what I wanted to do.”
A friend recommended a development position at the Federalist Society, and she spent the first few years as a fundraiser. But then she was asked to spell-check videos for FedSoc Studios. She found that work rewarding, and eventually transitioned into a full-time position as a video producer.
“I ended up doing literally the same exact thing I had done on the forensics team,” Ann said of her work at the Federalist Society. “Instead of a book or a story, I put together a script based on interviews with legal scholars. It has translated into the work I do today.”
She is in charge of FedSoc Studios’ SCOTUSbrief series, which summarizes important Supreme Court decisions in short explainer videos.
“It’s my baby,” Ann said of the series. “It is perfect for anybody who is interested in learning about the law.”
In 2022, Ann received an Excellence in Filmmaking Award at the Anthem Film Festival for co-directing the short documentary Image of an American: Frederick Douglass & the Right to Vote.
“That was a surprise,” she said of the award, which she accepted in person at the Freedom Fest. “I got to speak on a panel and meet other right-of-center filmmakers.”
Kirby also took an interesting path to his current position at Telemet America. After graduation, he taught for a couple of years at classical schools before taking a role at the Classic Learning Test (CLT), where he built out their new school sales department. Following a brief stint in fundraising at the Freedom Foundation, he was encouraged by family members to consider a career in finance.
With that goal in mind, Kirby enrolled in the finance master’s program at Purdue University Global, working part-time delivering pizzas for Papa John’s, which covered the cost of his tuition.
For a time, he was delivering pizzas at night and caring for their daughter during the day while Ann was at work. In between, he managed to squeeze in his coursework. In September 2021, he accepted a position with his current employer, Telemet, which left him juggling the two jobs and school, along with being a full-time dad and husband.
“Ann and I were working reversed schedules for two or three years,” Kirby said. “It was a challenge, but we made it work.”
He completed his master’s degree in May of 2022, and started his current position as sales vice president later that month. Kirby was recently elected to the Hillsdale College Alumni Association Board and said they are both grateful for their Hillsdale education.
Now settling into life in Texas, they said things are “coming together” for their family.
“It just kind of all worked out,” Kirby said. “Texas was one of those places on our list of places to live.”
Doug Goodnough, ’90, is Hillsdale’s director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.
Published in August 2023