Hartley is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has been active in political fundraising and community initiatives.

She then worked as director of congressional relations in the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1977 to 1978.

[7] On January 26, 2011, President Obama nominated Hartley to serve on the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

[13] On January 11, 2015, Hartley represented the United States at a unity march in Paris following the Charlie Hebdo shooting.

[14] Later that same year, she proposed that Jeff Koons create an artwork to be offered to the City of Paris in homage to the victims of the 2015 terrorist attacks.

The resultant 35-ton work, sited in a very wealthy area near the Champs-Élysées and not the poorer 11th arrondissement around the Bataclan theatre murders, Bouquet of Tulips, has raised objections in the French art world that it is inappropriate, as has the singlehanded nature of Koons' selection.

[23] Hartley accompanied Joe and Jill Biden as they visited Westminster Hall on September 18, 2022 to pay their respects to the late Elizabeth II as her coffin lay in state.

[25] Hartley is married to investment banker and former Evercore Partners CEO Ralph Schlosstein.