When impeachment witness Fiona Hill was a child, a boy set her hair on fire during a test. She put it out with her bare hands and finished the test.

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When impeachment witness Fiona Hill was a child, a boy set her hair on fire during a test. She put it out with her bare hands and finished the test.

Fiona Hill

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  • Fiona Hill, the former director for Europe and Russia on the National Security Council, has experience facing adverse circumstances under pressure.
  • When Hill was 11 years old, she was taking a test in class when a boy set her pigtail on fire. Hill simply put out the fire with her hands and finished taking the test, The New York Times reported.
  • Hill has proven to be a star witness in the impeachment inquiry hearings.
  • She testified that Rudy Giuliani, US ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, and others implemented a shadow campaign to pressure Ukraine to intervene in US domestic politics to benefit Trump.
  • Follow along with our live coverage of the hearings here.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Fiona Hill, the former director for Europe and Russia on the National Security Council, has experience facing adverse circumstances under pressure.

When Hill, who was born and raised in northeast England, was 11 years old, a boy set her pigtail on fire in class. Hill simply put out the fire with her hands and finished taking the test, The New York Times reported.

Hill, who testified publicly during Thursday's impeachment hearings before the House Intelligence Committee, went on to learn Russian, earn a PhD from Harvard, and become an expert in Russia and President Vladimir V. Putin. She served as an intelligence analyst, an expert at the Brookings Institution, and the top Russia expert on the National Security Council until July, 2019.

She testified that President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, US ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, and others implemented a shadow campaign to pressure Ukraine to intervene in US domestic politics to benefit Trump.

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Hill pushed back on Republicans on the committee, some of whom - much like President Donald Trump - have expressed skepticism about the US intelligence community's determination that Russia interfered in the US election.

"Based on questions and statements I have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country - and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did," she said.

She added, "I refuse to be part of an effort to legitimize an alternate narrative that the Ukrainian government is a US adversary and that Ukraine - not Russia - attacked us in 2016."

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