Know the Indians in White House

For the first time in the history of United States, more than 20 Indian-Americans are appointed/nominated for top posts in the Joe Biden Government.

www.indianf.com looks at the persons who are now part of the American administration.

 

Neera Tanden; an American political consultant, she is the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget under the Biden Administration. She will play a major role in budget preparation. She was the president of the Centre for American Progress , where she has served in different capacities since 2003. She has also worked on several Democratic presidential campaigns, including those of Bill Clinton (1992) and Barack Obama (2008).  During Obama administration, Tanden helped in drafting the Affordable Care Act.

Vanita Gupta: The 45-year-old American Civil Rights Attorney is the associate attorney general of the US Department of Justice. She is the President/ Chief Executive Officer of the Leadership Conference  on Civil and Human Rights civil rights coalition. She was also Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General and head of the Civil Rights division at the US Department of Justice until 2017. She was Deputy Legal Director of the American Civil liberties Union Gupta was also Assistant Counsel at the NAACP legal defence and Educational Fund.

Dr Vivek Murthy: The new US Surgeon general will lead the Biden’s Coronavirus task force. He was earlier Vice Admiral in the Public health Services Commisioned Corps. He is also the founder of the non-profit Doctors for America in 2008.

Mala Adiga: A lawyer by profession, the 47 year old will serve as policy advisor to First Lady Jill Biden. Ashe had earlier worked for the Biden Foundation as director for higher education and military families. Biden’s wife Jill mainly focuses on education and plans to continue teaching community college classes. Adiga was senior policy adviser for Biden’s 2020 campaign. During Obama’s administration, she was deputy assistant secretary of state for academic programmes at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

 Sabrina Singh: New White House Deputy Press Secretary. She started her career as the press assistant at theDemocratic Congressional  Campaign Committee. She had served as Press secretary to Vice President Kamala Harris when she was California’s senator. Singh has served as the National Press Secretary for Cory Booker 2020 presidential campaign and the Communications Director in the Hilary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Aisha Shah: She is the Partnerships Manager at the White House Office of Digital Strategy. Brought up in Louisiana, she had her college education at Davidson College, North Carolina. She was working as an advancement specialist at the Smithsonian Institution. She was also digital partnership manager in Biden -Kamala Harris campaign. She had also worked with Corporate Fund of John F Kennedy Center of Performing Arts as its assistant manager.

 Samira Fazali: She is the new Deputy Director at the US National Economic Council.  Fazali earlier served the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta where she worked as Director of Engagement for Community and Economic Development. She had served as senior policy advisor on the White House’s National Economic Council and senior advisor at the US Treasury Department in both Domestic Finance and International Affairs. She also worked as clinical lecturer of law at Yale Law School.

Bharat Ramamurti: he is part of the National Economic Council that coordinates the domestic and international economic policymaking process for the administration.

 Vinay Reddy: chief speechwriter to Joe Biden during his second term as Vice president , Reddy is now the director of speech-writing. He had worked as vice president of strategic communications for the National Basketball Association.

 

 

 

Gautam Raghavan: Indian –American Raghavan is the new deputy director of the office of presidential personnel.  Earlier, he served as associate director of the office of Public Liaison in the Obama Administration. He has also worked for the 2008 Obama Campaign, Progressive Majority, the Gill Foundation, Democratic National Committee and the US Department of Defence as the Outreach Lead for its “dont Ask, Dont tell” Working Group.

Vedant Patel:  Biden named him the assistant press secretary. He is the third Indian American to be part of the White House Press Corps. Prior to this, he was senior spokesperson of the Biden inaugural committee and Regional Communications Director of Biden campaign.

Sonia Aggarwal:  She was appointed as the senior advisor for climate policy and innovation in the office of the domestic climate policy. She is an expert on energy and climate change and led the America’s Power Plan. She also led the team that developed the Energy Policy Simulator

 

 

Vidur Sharma: New policy advisor for testing for the White House Coronavirus response team.  Sharma served the Obama administration as a health policy advisor on Domestic Policy Council.  He was Deputy Research Director with Protect Our Care.

Neha Gupta and Reema Shah: Biden appointed Neha Gupta as associate counsel and Shah as deputy associate counsel. Gupta was an attorney in the office of the general counsel for the Biden-Harris transition. Shah was on the team that looked after debate preparation for Biden-Harris campaign.

Tarun Chhabra: a graduate of Stanford University, Harvard Law School and Oxford University, he is the new Senior Director for Technology and National Security.  He is a fellow with the Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at the Brookings Institution and Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Georgetown University.

Sumona Guha: She is the Senior Director for South Asia. Before this, she was a senior adviser in the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. She had also served as special adviser for National Security Affairs in the Office of the Vice President. She is an expert in U S foreign policy towards Europe, Russia and South Asia.

Shanthi Kalathil: Former journalist, she is appointed as Coordinator for Democracy and Human Rights. She is at present senior director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy. Kalathil was a senior democracy fellow at the US Agency for International Development, Hong Kong-based reporter for Asian Wall Street Journal.  She is the co-author of “Open Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rule.”

Garima Verma: She will be personal Digitial  Editor of the First Lady of the United States. Verma was part of the Biden- Harris Campaign as an audience development and content strategist. Earlier, she worked as a volunteer with the content team, designing graphics for distribution to Biden-Harris volunteers across the country. She also worked at ABC Network  and Paramount Pictures.

Uzra Zeya:  Indian American diplomat nominated to be Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights.