In 1978 Gilden moved to Washington D.C. where she ran the political action committee for the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy during the mid-term elections. Immediately after the election, she was hired by Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder (D-CO) to serve as her legislative staff to the House Armed Services Committee. In 1980, Gilden was hired by the Office of the Secretary of Defense to serve as a special advisor in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Manpower, Reserve Affairs, and Logistics working on issues relating to the integration of women into the military academies and aboard combatant naval vessels and aircraft. In the wake of the Republican landslide during the 1980 elections, Gilden left politics. Seavey began her career in media initially working for media entrepreneur Alexander Sheftell developing radio programming for Mutual Broadcasting Corporation. In 1983, she and Sheftel became producers, along with Dan Enright, on the nationally syndicated "Jack Anderson Confidential". In 1984, Seavey produced for a number of broadcasters including WMAR-TV in Baltimore and the WETA nationally distributed weekly, "The Lawmakers". In 1990, she developed a partnership with Academy Award-winning filmmaker, Paul Wagner, and they produced several films for the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum, the Discovery Channel, and for PBS. In 1998, Seavey began producing and directing films independently. Seavey is a frequent panelist for film funding and prizes for organizations such as the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Southern Humanities Media Fund, the International Documentary Association, The Jack Kent Cooke Family Foundation, The Heinz Family Foundation, and the News and Documentary Emmy Awards, among many others. Seavey was named the “Woman of Vision” by Women in Film and Video in 2006. In 2012, she was named one of the top 50 Professors in Journalism in the U.S.