Biden Administration and 117Th Congress

Home , Amul Thapar, Antony Blinken, Bharat Ramamurti, Brian Deese, Carlos Elizondo, Dana Remus

Updated January 15, 2021

Executive office of the President (EOP) The Executive Office of the President (EOP) comprises the offices and agencies that support the work of the president at the center of the executive branch of the United States federal government. To provide the President with the support that he or she needs to govern effectively, the Executive Office of the President (EOP) was created in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The EOP has responsibility for tasks ranging from communicating the President’s message to the American people to promoting our trade interests abroad. The EOP is also referred to as a 'permanent government', with many policy programs, and the people who implement them, continuing between presidential administrations. This is because there is a need for qualified, knowledgeable civil servants in each office or agency to inform new politicians.

With the increase in technological and global advancement, the size of the White House staff has increased to include an array of policy experts to effectively address various fields. There are about 4,000 positions in the EOP, most of which do not require confirmation from the U.S. Senate.

Senior staff within the Executive Office of the President have the title Assistant to the President, second-level staff have the title Deputy Assistant to the President, and third-level staff have the title Special Assistant to the President.

The core White House staff appointments, and most Executive Office officials generally, are not required to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, although there are a handful of exceptions (e.g., the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Chair and members of the Council of Economic Advisers, and the United States Trade Representative). link

The following entities exist within the Executive Office of the President:

• Council of Economic Advisers • Council on Environmental Quality • Executive Residence • National Security Council • Office of Administration • Office of Management and Budget • Office of National Drug Control Policy • Office of Science and Technology Policy • Office of the United States Trade Representative • Office of the Vice President • White House Office

White House Office

In addition, the following entities exist within the White House Office, staff working directly for and reporting to the President including West Wing Staff and the president’s closest advisers

*links take you to full bios within the document

• Domestic Policy Council o Director Ambassador Susan Rice . Office of National AIDS Policy . Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships . Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation . White House Rural Council • National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan • National Security Council o Samantha Power, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development o Yohannes Abraham, Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary o Sasha Baker, Senior Director for Strategic Planning o Ariana Berengaut, Senior Advisor to the National Security Advisor o Tanya Bradsher, Senior Director for Partnerships and Global Engagement o Rebecca Brocato, Senior Director for Legislative Affairs o Elizabeth Cameron, Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense o Tarun Chhabra, Senior Director for Technology and National Security o Caitlin Durkovich, Senior Director for Resilience and Response o Jon Finer, Principal Deputy National Security Advisor o Juan Gonzalez, Senior Director for Western Hemisphere o Sumona Guha, Senior Director for South Asia o Ryan Harper, Deputy Chief of Staff and Deputy Executive Secretary o Peter Harrell, Senior Director for International Economics and Competitiveness o Emily Horne, Senior Director for Press and NSC Spokesperson o Shanthi Kalathil, Coordinator for Democracy and Human Rights o Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Senior Director for Russia and Central Asia o Ella Lipin, Senior Advisor to the Principal Deputy National Security Advisor

o Brett H. McGurk, Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa o Melanie Nakagawa, Senior Director for Climate and Energy o Carlyn Reichel, Senior Director for Speechwriting and Strategic Initiatives o Dr. Amanda Sloat, Senior Director for Europe • National Economic Council o Director Brian Deese . Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy Joelle Gamble . Deputy Director of the National Economic Council David Kamin . Deputy Director for the National Economic Council for Financial Reform and Consumer Protection Bharat Ramamurti • Office of Cabinet Affairs o Evan Ryan, Cabinet Secretary o Cristóbal J. Alex, Deputy Cabinet Secretary • Office of the Chief of Staff o Chief of Staff: Ron Klain o Deputy Chief of Staff: Jen O’Malley Dillon o Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed o Senior Advisor to the Chief of Staff Elizabeth Wilkins o Senior Advisor for Communications to the Chief of Staff Remi Yamamoto • Office of Communications o White House Communications Director: Kate Bedingfield o Deputy White House Communications Director: Pili Tobar o Deputy White House Communications Director: Kate Berner o Senior Regional Communications Director Paige Hill o Chief of Staff for the Office of Communications Emma Riley o Office of the Press Secretary . White House Press Secretary: Jen Psaki . Chief of Staff for the Press office and Special Assistant to the Press Secretary Amanda Finney . Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre . Assistant Press Secretary Rosemary Boeglin . Assistant Press Secretary Vedant Patel . Press Assistant Angela De Cruz Perez . Press Assistant Kevin Munoz . Press Assistant Amijah Townsend-Homes o Media Affairs . Director of Rapid Reponse Mike Gwin

. Director of Messaging Meghan Hays . Senior Director of Coalitions Media Jennifer Molina . Director of Broadcast Media Mariel Saez o Research . Director of Research Megan Apper o Speechwriting . Director of Speechwriting Vinay Reddy • Office of Digital Strategy o Brendan Cohen, Platform Manager o Rob Flaherty, Director of Digital Strategy o Maha Ghandour, Digital Partnerships Manager o Jonathan Hebert, Video Director o Jaime Lopez, Director of Platforms o Carahna Magwood, Creative Director o Abbey Pitzer, Designer o Olivia Raisner, Traveling Content Director o Rebecca Rinkevich, Deputy Director Of Digital Strategy o Aisha Shah, Partnerships Manager o Christian Tom, Deputy Director Of Digital Strategy o Cameron Trimble, Director of Digital Engagement • Office of the First Lady o Chief of Staff to Dr. Jill Biden: Julissa Reynoso Pantaleong o Senior Advisor to Dr. Jill Biden: Anthony Bernal o Policy Director to Dr. Jill Biden: Mala Adiga o Communications Director for Dr. Jill Biden: Elizabeth E. Alexander o Press Secretary Michael LaRosa o Office of the Social Secretary . White House Social Secretary: Carlos Elizondo . Deputy Social Secretary Liz Hart o Director of Joining Forces Rory Brosius o Director of Scheduling and Advance Gina Lee o Deputy Policy Director Vanessa Lion o Director of Advance and Trip Director Jordan Montoya o Digital Director Garima Verma • Office of Legislative Affairs o Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs: Louisa Terrell o Deputy Director of White House Office of Legislative Affairs: Reema Dodin o Deputy Director of White House Office of Legislative Affairs: Shuwanza Goff o Zephranie Buetow, Special Assistant to the President and Senate Legislative Affairs Liaison

o Kaitlyn Hobbs Demers, Special Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff for the Office of Legislative Affairs o Christopher Garcia, Senior Legislative Affairs Advisor o Ashley Jones, Special Assistant to the President and House Legislative Affairs Liaison o Alicia Molt-West, Special Assistant to the President and House Legislative Affairs Liaison o Angela Ramirez, Special Assistant to the President and House Legislative Affairs Liaison o Dana Shubat, Senior Legislative Affairs Advisor o Lee Slater, Special Assistant to the President and House Legislative Affairs Liaison o Chris Slevin, Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs • Office of Management and Administration o White House Personnel o White House Operations o Telephone Office . David Recordon, Director of Technology . Austin Lin, Deputy Director of Technology o Visitors Office • Oval Office Operations o Director of Oval Office Operations: Annie Tomasini o Deputy Director of Oval Office Operations Ashley Williams o Director of Management & Administration Anne Filipic o Personal Aide to the President of the United States Stephen Goepfert • Office of Presidential Personnel o Director of White House Office of Presidential Personnel: Cathy Russell o Deputy Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel Gautam Raghavan o Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel Karen Andre o Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel Jamie Citron o Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel Corina Cortez o Senior Associate Director Matt Dannenberg o Director for Leadership & Training Dani Durante o Senior Associate Director Stacy Eichner o Senior Associate Director Danielle Okai o Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel Katie Petrelius o Senior Associate Director Jacob Sztraicher

o Special Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff for the Office of Presidential Personnel Rachel Wallace o Senior Associate Director Allison Wong o Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel Thomas Zimmerman • Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs o Adrian Saenz, Deputy Director of the Office of Public Engagement o Office of Public Engagement . Senior Advisor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement: Congressman Cedric Richmond . Council on Women and Girls o Office of Intergovernmental Affairs . Director of White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs: Julie Chavez Rodriguez

o Office of Urban Affairs • Office of Scheduling and Advance o Director of Scheduling & Advance Ryan Montoya • Office of the Staff Secretary o Staff Secretary Jessica Hertz o Deputy Staff Secretary Michael Hochman o Presidential Correspondence o Executive Clerk o Records Management • Office of the White House Counsel o White House Counsel: Dana Remus o Jonathan Cedarbaum, Deputy Counsel to the President and National Security Council Legal Advisor o Danielle Conley, Deputy Counsel to the President o Stuart Delery, Deputy Counsel to the President o Jonathan Su, Deputy Counsel to the President o Samiyyah Ali, Deputy Associate Counsel o Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo, Associate Counsel o Tona Boyd, Special Counsel o Megan Ceronsky, Associate Counsel o Martine Cicconi, Associate Counsel o Sean Crotty, Associate Counsel o Ashley Deeks, Associate Counsel and Deputy Legal Advisor to the National Security Council o Justin Dews, Deputy Associate Counsel o Neha Gupta, Associate Counsel 7

o Paige Herwig, Senior Counsel o Janet Kim, Associate Counsel o Ephraim McDowell, Deputy Associate Counsel o Jaimie McFarlin, Deputy Associate Counsel o Caroline McKay, Chief of Staff to the White House Counsel and Deputy Associate Counsel o Lauren Moore, Associate Counsel o Michael Posada, Associate Counsel o Maury Riggan, Associate Counsel o Larry Schwartzol, Associate Counsel o Reema Shah, Deputy Associate Counsel o Jennifer Sokoler, Associate Counsel o Erica Songer, Associate Counsel • Office of the Vice President o Chief of Staff to the Vice President Hartina Flournoy o Communications Director for the Vice President: Ashley Etienne o Senior Advisor and Chief Spokesperson for the Vice President: Symone Sanders o Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President Rohini Kosoglu o National Security Advisor to the Vice President Nancy McEldowney o Cynthia Bernstein, Director of Management and Administration for the Office of the Vice President o Josh Hsu, Counsel to the Vice President o Yael Belkind, Assistant to the Chief of Staff o Vincent Evans, Deputy Director of the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs o Michael Fuchs, Deputy Chief of Staff o Kate Childs Graham, Director of Speech Writing o Dr. Ike Irby, Policy Advisor o Deanne Millison, Deputy Policy Director o Rachel Palermo, Assistant Press Secretary o Mike Pyle, Chief Economic Advisor o Sabrina Singh, Deputy Press Secretary o Peter Velz, Director of Press Operations o Herbie Ziskend, Deputy Communications Director

Biden – Harris Transition Confirmed White House Staff

Office of the President White House Chief of Staff: Ron Klain graduated summa cum laude Harvard Law School, Editor of the Harvard Law Review Ron Klain served as the president-elect’s first Chief of Staff when he became Vice President (2009-11); Chief Counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the president-elect’s tenure as Chair of the Committee (1989-92); and Policy Advisor on the Judiciary Committee staff (1986-87). Klain also worked as an advisor on President-elect Biden’s 1988 and 2008 Presidential campaigns. Klain has devoted many years to public service, serving as White House Ebola Response Coordinator (2014-15). At the conclusion of his work coordinating the US response, President Obama said that Klain had taken on “a challenge that many called insurmountable, and, in leading the team responsible for tremendous progress, helped remind the world what makes America exceptional.” Earlier, in addition to his work with then-Vice President Biden, Klain served as Chief of Staff for Vice President Al Gore, Chief of Staff and Counselor to Attorney General Janet Reno, and Staff Director of the Senate Democratic Leadership Committee. Klain was also Associate Counsel to President Clinton and in charge of judicial selection. Through his work on the Judiciary Committee, and in the Executive Branch, he has played a role in the selection or confirmation of eight Supreme Court Justices. Prior to joining the Biden for President campaign, Klain was Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Revolution LLC. In 2005, prior to joining Revolution, Klain spent four years as a partner and National Practice Group Chair at O’Melveny & Myers. Klain began his legal career as a law clerk to Justice Byron White, for the Supreme Court’s 1987 and 1988 Terms. He was also General Counsel for the Gore Recount Committee in 2000. Serving as an advisor on several Presidential campaigns, Klain has worked for Presidents Obama and Clinton, and Democratic Presidential nominees Al Gore, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. Ron Klain graduated summa cum laude from Harvard Law School, was an Editor of the Harvard Law Review, and won the Sears Prize for highest grade average in 1985. He was a summa cum laude graduate of Georgetown University, where he serves an Adjunct Professor. Klain is married to Monica Medina and they have three grown children. link

Senior Advisor to the Chief of Staff Elizabeth Wilkins

Elizabeth Wilkins serves as the Senior Advisor to the Chief of Staff for the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to joining the transition, Wilkins served in various senior leadership roles at the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia (OAG), including Senior Counsel for Policy and Chief of Staff. Prior to joining OAG, Elizabeth served as a law clerk to Associate Justice Elena Kagan of the U.S. Supreme Court, and to then-Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Before law school, Elizabeth served as an urban policy and economic opportunity advisor in the Obryanama-Biden White House Domestic Policy Council; led field operations in Michigan for President Obama’s 2008 campaign; and worked as a political organizer for the Service Employees International Union. Wilkins is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School and lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, son and daughter.

Deputy Chief of Staff: Jen O’Malley Dillon Massachusetts Native and Tufts Graduate Jen O’Malley Dillon served as the Campaign Manager for the Biden-Harris campaign. She was the first female campaign manager for a successful Democratic presidential campaign. A veteran of seven presidential campaigns, O’Malley Dillon has worked in leadership and organizing positions on campaigns at every level – from state senate and mayoral races to congressional, gubernatorial, and senate campaigns. Prior to joining the Biden campaign in March 2020, she was the Campaign Manager for Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign and was a founding partner at Precision Strategies, a communications, digital, and data- targeting firm. Previously, she served as Deputy Campaign manager for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee, and battleground states director for Obama’s 2008 campaign. In her 2012 role, she oversaw the largest field, education, political outreach, and data analytics organization in the history of presidential campaigns. A native of Massachusetts, O’Malley Dillon is a graduate of Tufts University and a mom of three young children. link

Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed

Bruce Reed was Vice President Joe Biden’s Chief of Staff from 2011 to 2013 and traveled with him for the past year and a half as a Senior Adviser to the Biden for President Campaign. Reed has spent 12 years working on domestic and economic policy in the White House, and served as President Clinton’s chief domestic policy adviser. He began his career as Senator Al Gore’s chief speechwriter and was deputy campaign manager for policy of the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign. For the past five years, Reed has been Co-Chair of the Aspen Institute’s Future of Work Initiative and CEO of Civic, a bipartisan social enterprise firm. As a Senior Adviser at Common Sense Media, he helped draft the 2018 California Consumer Privacy Act, the most far-reaching technology privacy law in American history. Reed has

10 been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago and the University of Delaware, and has degrees from Princeton and Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He is a native of Idaho.

Emmy Ruiz, Director of Political Strategy & Outreach

Emmy Ruiz is a former campaign aide to Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris, Secretary Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama, and Democratic Chairman Tom Perez. She is a co- founder and partner of NEWCO Strategies, a minority-majority political firm. During the 2018 and 2020 election cycles, Ruiz helped support the work of groups mobilizing communities of color to vote and running and electing progressive women to office. For the 2016 presidential elections, Ruiz led and won Colorado and Nevada for Hillary Clinton. She has served as senior advisor to the Democratic National Committee and as the Political Director of Annie’s List in Texas. In 2012, she served as the General Election Director in Nevada for President Obama’s re-election campaign. Born in Harlingen, Texas, Ruiz is a graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio. She lives in Austin, TX with her wife and son.

Erin Wilson, Deputy Director of Political Strategy & Outreach

Erin Wilson serves as Deputy Executive Director to the Presidential Inaugural Committee. Prior to this role, Erin served as the Biden-Harris campaign’s national political director throughout the primary and general elections. As a senior staff member in this role, Wilson was responsible for relationships with hundreds of elected officials and leaders across the country. Previously, Wilson was a senior aide in Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey’s office, most recently serving as his state director and senior advisor to his 2018 reelection. She is also a Hillary for America, Democratic National Committee and Congressional Black Caucus Foundation alumna. Originally from Pennsylvania, Wilson is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Adrian Saenz, Deputy Director of the Office of Public Engagement

Adrian Saenz was an advisor for Latino paid media and mail on the Biden-Harris campaign. He previously served as Special Assistant to the President, Deputy Director and Senior Advisor in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs where he managed the Obama-Biden administration’s relationships with Governors, legislators, and other state elected officials. He also served on the White House Ebola response team led by Ron Klain. Previously, Saenz served as the Obama-Biden 2012 National Latino Vote Director, as a Chief of Staff to two members of Congress, as the Texas and New Mexico state director for President Obama’s 2008 campaign, and as the Latino vote and field director at the

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006. Born in Texas, Saenz is a graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Senior Advisor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement: Congressman Cedric Richmond

Congressman Cedric Richmond was National Co-Chairman of the Biden-Harris Campaign and is currently a Co-Chair of the Biden-Harris Transition Team. Since 2011, Richmond has represented Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. During his time in Congress, Richmond served on the House Ways and Means Committee, the House Committee on Homeland Security, the House Committee on the Judiciary, the House Democratic Assistant to the Majority Whip, a member of the New Democratic Coalition, Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, and, most recently, Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Richmond was a leader in helping to enact landmark criminal justice reform and ensuring that the people of Louisiana’s 2nd District were prepared for emergencies and natural disasters through his oversight of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on the House Committee on Homeland Security. Born and raised in New Orleans, Richmond is a graduate of Morehouse College and Tulane University School of Law, where he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. link

Director of White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs: Julie Chavez Rodriguez Julie Chavez Rodriguez served as a Deputy Campaign Manager on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Before that, she was National Political Director and traveling Chief of Staff for then-Senator Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. Prior to launching Senator Harris’ campaign, she served as California State Director in her senate office. During the Obama- Biden administration, Chavez Rodriguez served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Deputy Director of Public Engagement in the Office of Public Engagement. Before joining the White House, Chavez Rodriguez served as the Director of Youth Employment at the Department of the Interior and as Deputy Press Secretary to former Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. Earlier in her career, she served as the Director of Programs at the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation. A native of California, she is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. link

Senior Advisor to the President: Mike Donilon native of Rhode Island Mike Donilon served as Chief Strategist for the Biden-Harris Campaign, where he was responsible for overseeing message discipline and development, television advertising, speechwriting, and polling and research. Previously, Donilon served as Counselor to then- Vice President Biden in the White House. Donilon has been a nationally recognized strategist, media consultant and pollster for nearly four decades, having been part of six US presidential campaigns and more than 25 winning US Senate, gubernatorial, US House and mayoral campaigns. Prior to joining the Biden-Harris campaign, Donilon was Managing Director of the Biden Institute and assistant professor at the University of Delaware. A native of Rhode Island, Donilon is a graduate of Georgetown University and Georgetown University Law Center. link

White House Counsel: Dana Remus native of New Hampshire, Remus is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School. Dana Remus served as General Counsel of the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to that, she was General Counsel of the Obama Foundation and President and Mrs. Obama’s personal office. During the Obama-Biden administration, Remus was the Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel for Ethics. Previously, she was a Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law, where she specialized in legal and judicial ethics and the regulation of the legal profession. Remus clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. and Judge Anthony J. Scirica of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and was an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. A native of New Hampshire, Remus is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School. link

Deputy Counsel to the President and National Security Council Legal Advisor Jonathan Cedarbaum

Jonathan Cedarbaum is a partner at WilmerHale, from which he has been on leave since April serving as Senior Counsel for Litigation for the Biden-Harris Campaign. During the Obama-Biden Administration, he served as Deputy Assistant, Principal Deputy Assistant, and Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). He has also served as a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General, an Attorney-Adviser in OLC, a Legal Advisor to the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and a member of amicus panel for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Originally from New York, Cedarbaum is a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School. He lives in Maryland with his wife and two children.

Deputy Counsel to the President Danielle Conley

Danielle Conley serves as Deputy on the Department of Justice Agency Review Team for the Biden-Harris Transition. She is a partner at WilmerHale, where she co-chairs the firm’s Anti-Discrimination practice. During the Obama-Biden administration, Conley served as Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. In that role, she provided strategic counsel to the Deputy Attorney General and other senior government officials on a wide range of regulatory, litigation and policy issues and managed some of the Department’s most significant civil rights enforcement actions. Previously, Conley was a WilmerHale fellow at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and clerked for Rosemary M. Collyer on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Originally from Texas, Conley is a graduate of Tulane University and Howard University School of Law. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two daughters.

Deputy Counsel to the President Stuart Delery

Stuart Delery is a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP. During the Obama-Biden Administration, Delery served as Acting Associate Attorney General of the United States, the third-ranking position at the Department of Justice, and was the most senior openly- LGBTQ official in DOJ history. Previously, Delery was the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division and supervised the legal defense of Congressional statutes, including the Affordable Care Act, and agency actions. He also served as Senior Counselor to Attorney General Eric Holder, among other positions. Prior to the Obama- Biden Administration, Delery was a partner at WilmerHale and a clerk to Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Byron White (Ret.) and Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat of the Eleventh Circuit. Originally from Louisiana, Delery is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Yale Law School, where he is a Visiting Lecturer. Delery and his husband live in Washington, D.C., and have two children.

Deputy Counsel to the President Jonathan Su

Jonathan Su is the Deputy Office Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C. office of Latham & Watkins LLP, where he is also a partner in the White Collar Defense & Investigations practice. During the Obama-Biden Administration, Su served as Special Counsel to the President. Prior to his time at the White House, Su was a federal prosecutor at the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland. He served as a law clerk for U.S. Circuit Judge Ronald M. Gould and U.S. District Judge Julian Abele Cook, Jr. Originally from Southern California, Su is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Georgetown University Law Center. He lives in Virginia with his wife, son and daughter.

Samiyyah Ali, Deputy Associate Counsel

Samiyyah Ali recently served as a trial litigator at Wilkinson Stekloff LLP. Previously, Ali served as a law clerk to Judge Amul Thapar of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Judge Sri Srinivasan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to her legal career, Ali worked as a student affairs administrator at The Ohio State University. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Ali earned her bachelor’s degree from Duke University, her master’s degree in higher education from The Ohio State University, and her law degree from Vanderbilt Law School.

Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo, Associate Counsel

Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo was General Counsel of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, chaired by House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn. Her prior government service includes serving as Counsel for Policy to the Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Ethics Counsel at the White House Counsel’s Office and Attorney Advisor at the Administrative Conference of the United States during the Obama-Biden administration. Olorunnipa Badejo began her legal career as an associate with the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP and was Legal Counsel at Palantir Technologies Inc. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the University of Florida. Originally from Florida, Olorunnipa Badejo lives in Washington D.C. with her husband and son.

Tona Boyd, Special Counsel

Tona Boyd was Chief Counsel and Senior Legal Advisor to Senator Cory A. Booker on the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where she advised him on criminal justice and police reform, civil rights, election integrity, and nominations. Before joining Senator Booker, Boyd spent eight years investigating and prosecuting law enforcement misconduct and hate crimes as an Honors Trial Attorney at the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Criminal Section. Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Boyd clerked for the Honorable Roger L. Gregory on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Originally from Ohio, Boyd is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Harvard Law School. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband.

Megan Ceronsky, Associate Counsel

Megan Ceronsky was Executive Director of the Center for Applied Environmental Law and Policy, an organization dedicated to advancing environmental and energy law and policy. During the Obama-Biden administration, Ceronsky first served as Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Energy and Climate Change and then as Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel to the President. Previously, Ceronsky was Director of Regulatory Policy and Senior Attorney with the Domestic Climate and Air program at Environmental Defense

Fund and before that practiced energy and environmental law at Van Ness Feldman, LLP. She clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for Judge M. Blane Michael. Born in Minnesota, she is a graduate of the University of Arkansas, Oxford University, and Yale Law School.

Martine Cicconi, Associate Counsel

Martine Cicconi serves as Deputy Solicitor General for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Previously, Cicconi was counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. During the Obama-Biden administration, she served as Associate White House Counsel and as an Attorney Advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice. Cicconi clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Merrick B. Garland on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She was born in Newton, MA, and is a graduate of Stanford University and Stanford Law School. Prior to matriculating at Stanford, Cicconi spent several years as a professional ballet dancer with the New York City Ballet.

Sean Crotty, Associate Counsel

Sean Crotty is the Deputy General Counsel for the 2021 Presidential Inaugural Committee and served as a legal consultant on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to the campaign, Crotty worked as a solo practitioner in Washington, D.C., advising clients on issues of political law, government ethics, and corporate compliance. Crotty has also served as in- house counsel at a large government relations and public affairs firm. A native of Missouri, Crotty is a graduate of the University of Missouri and the Indiana University School of Law.

Ashley Deeks, Associate Counsel and Deputy Legal Advisor to the National Security Council

Ashley Deeks was a Professor at the University of Virginia Law School, where she taught national security law and international law and directed the National Security Law Center. She served on the Boards of Editors for the American Journal of International Law and the Journal of National Security Law and Policy and on the State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Law. Deeks also was a senior fellow at the Lieber Institute for Law and Land Warfare at West Point and at UVA’s Miller Center. She was a senior contributor to Lawfare, a national security blog. Before joining UVA, Deeks served for ten years in the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser, including as the Assistant Legal Adviser for political-military affairs and the legal adviser to U.S. Embassy Baghdad. Raised in New Jersey, Deeks is a graduate of Williams College and the University of Chicago Law School.

Justin Dews, Deputy Associate Counsel

Justin Dews is an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel for the Biden-Harris Transition. Before joining the transition, he served as Senior Counsel to New Jersey

Governor Phil Murphy. Previously, Dews was a litigation associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. He clerked for the Honorable Judge Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Before his clerkship, Dews was an associate in the Political Law Group at Perkins Coie. In 2012, Dews was a researcher on President Obama’s re- election campaign. Originally from New Jersey, Dews is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School.

Neha Gupta, Associate Counsel

Neha Gupta is an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel for the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to that, Gupta served as a Deputy City Attorney in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, where she was general counsel to several city agencies, litigated constitutional and statutory challenges to city laws and administrative decisions, and participated in the office’s affirmative public protection advocacy. Previously, Gupta clerked for Judge Michael Daly Hawkins of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge Richard Seeborg of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. A New York native born to Indian immigrants, Gupta is a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford Law School.

Paige Herwig, Senior Counsel

Paige Herwig serves as the Deputy General Counsel for the Biden-Harris Transition. During the Obama-Biden administration, Herwig served as Counselor to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Associate Counsel to the President, and Chief of Staff of the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice. Herwig previously worked as Director of Governance and Strategic Initiatives at Facebook, Deputy Chief Counsel at Demand Justice, Deputy General Counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee for Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, and Chief Counsel to Senator Amy Klobuchar. She clerked for Judge Harry T. Edwards of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Originally from Iowa, Herwig is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School.

Janet Kim, Associate Counsel

Janet Kim served as legal counsel to the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to that, she served as Chief Counsel for Investigations on the Democratic staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. During the Obama-Biden administration, Kim served as Speechwriter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and at the White House as Deputy Associate Counsel for Presidential Personnel. Kim was also an investigations lawyer at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, and clerked for Judge John D. Tinder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Born in Michigan, Kim is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her wife and daughter.

Ephraim McDowell, Deputy Associate Counsel

Ephraim McDowell served as a legal volunteer on the Biden-Harris Campaign. He recently worked as an associate at O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Prior to that, McDowell served as a law clerk to Justice Elena Kagan on the U.S. Supreme Court and to Judge Merrick Garland on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Born in Massachusetts, McDowell is a graduate of Hamilton College and Harvard Law School.

Jaimie McFarlin, Deputy Associate Counsel

Jaimie McFarlin serves as an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel for the Biden- Harris Transition. Before joining the transition, McFarlin worked in a legal and operations role for a fashion start-up. Prior to that position, McFarlin was an associate at Sidley Austin LLP and clerked for Judge Paula Xinis of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. McFarlin was also an associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Originally from New York, she graduated from Harvard Law School, where she was a NAACP Legal Defense Fund Earl Warren Scholar. She received her Bachelor of Arts as a John B. Ervin Scholar and her MBA as a Consortium for Graduate Study in Management Fellow, both from Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to law school, McFarlin played professional basketball in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Caroline McKay, Chief of Staff to the White House Counsel and Deputy Associate Counsel

Caroline McKay served as staff counsel on the Biden-Harris Campaign. McKay previously worked as a member of the founding team of Protect Democracy and a legal assistant in the White House Counsel’s Office during the Obama-Biden administration. During law school, McKay was a law clerk on the Democratic staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a summer associate at Morrison & Foerster LLP. An Atlanta native, McKay is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

Lauren Moore, Associate Counsel

Lauren Moore served as General Counsel to Senator Kamala D. Harris on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she advised on nominations, criminal justice reform, civil rights, and voting rights. She previously served as Deputy General Counsel to Senator Harris. Before joining Senator Harris’s office, Moore practiced at WilmerHale, where she maintained a broad litigation and government enforcement practice. She also clerked for the Honorable Rosemary M. Collyer on the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Originally from California, Moore is a graduate of the University of Southern California and Harvard Law School.

Michael Posada, Associate Counsel

Michael Posada was Senior Counsel for Labor and Employment for the Biden-Harris Campaign. Previously, he was a counsel at WilmerHale. In that role, he advised a variety of clients on criminal investigations, civil litigations, and regulatory matters. He also served as a law clerk for Judge Analisa Torres of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and Judge Margaret A. Ryan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and he was an associate at Davis Polk. Posada graduated from The George Washington University and the New York University School of Law, and he lives in Washington, D.C.

Maury Riggan, Associate Counsel

Maury Riggan currently serves as an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel for the Biden-Harris Transition. Previously, she was a counsel in the Strategic Response group at WilmerHale, where her practice focused on crisis management assistance. She also served as an associate trustee for the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. Riggan holds a B.A. from Wake Forest University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. Originally from Kansas, she now lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and husky, Misha.

Larry Schwartzol, Associate Counsel

Larry Schwartztol is counsel at Protect Democracy, where he manages legal and policy advocacy on democracy reform and voting rights. Prior to joining Protect Democracy, Schwartztol was the Executive Director of the Criminal Justice Policy Program at Harvard Law School, a research and advocacy center focused on criminal justice reform. Before that, he was a staff attorney in the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program, where he led complex litigation on a broad range of civil rights issues. He was also a Liman Fellow in the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. Schwartztol clerked for Judge Harry T. Edwards of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Originally from Florida, Schwartztol attended the University of Chicago and Yale Law School. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife and two children.

Reema Shah, Deputy Associate Counsel

Reema Shah served on the debate preparation team for President-elect Biden on the Biden- Harris Campaign. Prior to that, she was an associate at Latham & Watkins and a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General at the Department of Justice. She served as a law clerk to Justice Elena Kagan on the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Sri Srinivasan on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Originally from New Jersey, Shah is a graduate of Harvard College, Cambridge University, and Yale Law School. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband.

Jennifer Sokoler, Associate Counsel

Jennifer Sokoler serves as a counsel to the Foreign and National Security Policy team on the Biden-Harris Transition, a position which she has held while on leave from O’Melveny & Myers LLP. During the Obama-Biden administration, Sokoler served as an advisor to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power. Earlier in her career, she served as a law clerk to Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Robert Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Judge Denise Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Originally from Delmar, New York, Sokoler is a graduate of Barnard College and Columbia Law School.

Erica Songer, Associate Counsel

Erica Songer serves as a senior counsel in the Office of the General Counsel for the Biden- Harris Transition. Songer previously served as Chief Counsel for Senator Chris Coons, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Songer’s portfolio included civil rights, criminal justice, immigration, bankruptcy, intellectual property, and judicial and Department of Justice nominations. Before working on Capitol Hill, Songer was a litigation partner at Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C. Songer also served as a law clerk for Judge Cornelia Kennedy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Born in Nebraska and raised in Illinois, Songer is a graduate of the University of Illinois and Harvard Law School. Songer and her husband live in Washington, D.C.

Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs: Louisa Terrell graduate of Boston College School of Law Louisa Terrell currently oversees legislative affairs for the Biden-Harris Transition Team. Terrell’s two decades of experience includes leadership roles in the public and private sectors, including as Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs in the Obama- Biden administration. Prior to that, she served as an Advisor to Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and worked for several years on Capitol Hill, including as Deputy Chief of Staff for then-U.S. Senator Biden and Chief of Staff for U.S. Senator Cory Booker. Terrell’s work outside of government has included roles as the Deputy General Counsel and Head of Public Affairs at McKinsey & Company, Executive Director of the Biden Foundation, Senior Director for Federal Policy & Strategy at Yahoo!, and Director of Public Policy at Facebook. Originally from Delaware, Terrell is a graduate of Tufts University and Boston College School of Law, and lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and two daughters. link

Deputy Director of White House Office of Legislative Affairs: Reema Dodin

Reema Dodin currently serves as a volunteer on the Biden-Harris Transition Team leading legislative engagement for the confirmations process. She also serves as Deputy Chief of Staff and Floor Director to the Senate Democratic Whip, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL). Prior to that, Dodin served as Senator Durbin’s Floor Counsel, Research Director and as an aide to his Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. Dodin has served as a volunteer voter-protection counsel on a number of campaigns, including the Obama for America campaign. She is a Truman National Security Fellow, a New Leaders Council Fellow, an Aspen Socrates alum, a former term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the Jenkins Hill Society — a consortium of women in politics supporting female politicians. Dodin is the co-author of a primer on House and Senate Floor procedures through Brookings publications. Originally from California, Dodin is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. link

Deputy Director of White House Office of Legislative Affairs: Shuwanza Goff first Black woman to hold the position

Shuwanza Goff served as Floor Director for the House of Representatives under House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer. The first Black woman to hold the position, Goff determined which bills came to the House floor, set the legislative schedule, and helped craft the overall House Democratic agenda. Prior to that, Goff was Director of Legislative Operations for Representative Hoyer when he was minority whip. Goff has also served as Floor Aide, Floor Assistant, and Staff Assistant for Representative Hoyer. Originally from Virginia, Goff is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and American University. link

Special Assistant to the President and Senate Legislative Affairs Liaison Zephranie Buetow

Zephranie Buetow currently serves as Legislative Director for U.S. Senator Gary Peters of Michigan. Prior to joining Peters staff in 2015, Buetow served as Legislative Counsel to U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. She also served in the Illinois Army National Guard. Originally from Illinois, Buetow is a graduate of the University of Illinois, Illinois State University and Loyola University Chicago.

Special Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff for the Office of Legislative Affairs Kaitlyn Hobbs Demers Kaitlyn Demers serves as a senior associate counsel on the Biden-Harris Transition. She previously served as Associate Counsel for then-Vice President Biden in the Obama-Biden administration. Prior to joining the transition, Kaitlyn was an associate at Covington and Burling where she focused on Congressional investigations. She also worked on several pro bono matters including immigration cases, gerrymandering litigation, and Constitutional rights cases. She graduated from George Washington University Law School in 2016. Before becoming a lawyer, she worked as a fifth grade teacher in Atlanta. Originally from upstate New York, Kaitlyn received a degree in theater and education from Lycoming College. She is a mom of two toddlers.

Senior Legislative Affairs Advisor Christopher Garcia

Christopher Garcia is Special Assistant for the Nominations Team on the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to his role on the transition, Garcia worked exclusively in the U.S. Congress inside both chambers. He served as the Director of Operations for Congresswoman Deb Haaland (NM-1) in the U.S. House of Representatives. Garcia also served as a Staff Assistant & Intern Coordinator for Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN) in the U.S. Senate. Additionally, he served as a Legislative Intern for Senator Tom Carper (DE) in the U.S. Senate. Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Garcia earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and his Juris Doctor from Mitchell | Hamline School of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Special Assistant to the President and House Legislative Affairs Liaison Ashley Jones

Ashley Jones is Senior Advisor to Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Luján, where she oversees the Member engagement program for the freshman class. Prior to joining the Assistant Speaker’s office, she was Chief of Staff to Representative Brad Schneider. Previously, Jones served as Assistant United States Trade Representative for Private Sector Engagement, where she worked with stakeholders to advance US trade policy. Prior to joining the executive branch, Jones served in the U.S. House of Representatives on the Energy and Commerce Committee as Director of Communications, Outreach, and Member Services for then-Ranking Member Frank Pallone, and also served for a decade as Chief of Staff to Representative John Barrow. Originally from Georgia, Jones is a graduate of the University of Georgia and lives in Washington, DC with her husband.

Special Assistant to the President and House Legislative Affairs Liaison Alicia Molt-West

Massachusetts Native

Alicia Molt-West serves in the Office of Legislative Affairs for the Biden-Harris Transition. She will be joining the White House’s Office of Legislative Affairs with more than ten years of experience in the House of Representatives and most recently served as Chief of Staff to Representative Lori Trahan of Massachusetts. Prior to working for Congresswoman Trahan, Molt-West spent five years working for Representative Mark Pocan as Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director. In this role, she served as the primary legislative contact for the Congressman’s work on the House Appropriations Committee and the Congressional Progressive Caucus during his Chairmanship. Molt-West also worked in legislative roles for Representatives Jim McGovern and Gwendolynne S. Moore. Originally from Northbridge, Massachusetts, Molt-West is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and Johns Hopkins University. She and her husband, Stephen, live in Washington, DC with their twin daughters.

Special Assistant to the President and House Legislative Affairs Liaison Angela Ramirez

Angela Ramirez serves as senior staff on the Biden-Harris Transition since its initiation earlier this year. Prior to transition, Ramirez was Chief of Staff to Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Luján. She oversaw his office from his freshman term to becoming the highest ranking Latino in House history. Ramirez has been the Executive Director of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and has worked on domestic issues in federal, state, and local government. She graduated from Princeton University, where she was the first woman to co-chair the 115 year-old humor magazine. Currently living in DC with her husband, she is the daughter of farm workers and a native of California.

Senior Legislative Affairs Advisor Dana Shubat

Dana Shubat serves as the Office of Legislative Affairs Strategic Coordination Lead on the Biden-Harris Transition and is a Legislative Aide for U.S. Senator Michael Bennet. Shubat also serves as the Senate Vice President of the Congressional Middle Eastern and North African Staff Association. As the daughter of Jordanian immigrants, Shubat is a first- generation American. Born in California and raised in Colorado, Shubat is a graduate of the University of Colorado.

Special Assistant to the President and House Legislative Affairs Liaison Lee Slater

Lee Slater currently serves as Director of Outreach and Member Services to Chairman Richard E. Neal and the Committee on Ways & Means. Slater has held a number of additional roles within the U.S. House of Representatives, including as Chief of Staff to Congressman John B. Larson , a Senior Advisor to the House Democratic Caucus, and a Legislative Assistant to Congressman Jason Altmire. He came to Capitol Hill following service in the U.S. Army Reserve, which included deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan in support of both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. A western Pennsylvania native, Slater attended the University of Pittsburgh. He now resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife and golden retriever.

Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs Chris Slevin

Chris Slevin serves on the Biden-Harris Transition in the Office of Legislative Affairs. Prior to his role on the transition, he served as vice president of the Economic Innovation Group, a research and advocacy organization focused on geographic inequality. Slevin served in the U.S. Senate for more than a decade, most recently as legislative director for Senator Cory Booker and earlier as an economic policy advisor to Senator Sherrod Brown. Previously, he was a deputy director at Public Citizen, the national consumer advocacy organization. Born in New Jersey, Slevin is a graduate of Villanova University. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife, daughter and son.

White House Communications Director: Kate Bedingfield

2008 Communications Director for Senator Jean Shaheen Campaign

Kate Bedingfield served as Deputy Campaign Manager and Communications Director for the Biden-Harris Campaign. She served as Communications Director for Vice President Biden and as Associate Communications Director, Deputy Director of Media Affairs, and the Director of Response in the Obama-Biden White House. Prior to the Obama-Biden administration, Bedingfield served as Communications Director to U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen on her successful 2008 Senate campaign, Deputy National Press Secretary on the John Edwards for President campaign and Regional Press Secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006 when Democrats won back the House. Bedingfield has also served as the Chief Spokeswoman and Vice President of Corporate Communications at the Motion Picture Association of America and as the Vice President of Communications at Monumental Sports & Entertainment. Originally from Georgia, Bedingfield is a graduate of the University of Virginia. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband, son and daughter. link

Chief of Staff for the Office of Communications Emma Riley

Emma Riley served as Deputy Communications Director for the Biden-Harris Campaign in Pennsylvania. During the 2020 presidential primary election, Riley served as Northeast Regional Communications Director and New Hampshire Press Secretary for the Biden Campaign. Prior to the campaign, Riley served as the Associate Press Secretary and Deputy Director of Advance for Mayor Martin J. Walsh in the City of Boston. She has also filled key roles on multiple campaigns, including Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Originally from Massachusetts, Riley is a graduate of High Point University.

Deputy White House Communications Director: Pili Tobar Pili Tobar served as the Communications Director for Coalitions on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Before joining the campaign, Tobar served as the Deputy Director for America’s Voice, where she advocated on behalf of immigrants. She has also served as the Hispanic Media Director for Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, National Director of Hispanic Media and Western Regional Press Secretary for the Democratic National Committee, Communications Director for Congressman Ruben Gallego, and Communications Director for the Latino Victory Project. Originally from Florida and raised in Guatemala, Tobar is a graduate of the University of Miami. She lives in Washington D.C. with her wife and daughter. link

Deputy White House Communications Director Kate Berner Kate Berner was the Deputy Communications Director for Messaging for the Biden-Harris campaign. Prior to her role on the campaign, Berner was a Vice President at SKDKnickerbocker, where she helped launch the Biden Foundation and worked in the firm’s Supreme Court practice, helping to protect the Affordable Care Act. In the Obama- Biden Administration, she served as Director of Outreach and Deputy Director of Administration in the Office of the Vice President and as a Special Advisor at the Department of Commerce. Berner previously worked for former Illinois Governor Pat Quinn. A native of New York, Berner graduated from the University of Chicago.

White House Press Secretary: Jen Psaki Jen Psaki currently oversees the confirmations team for the Biden-Harris Transition. During the Obama-Biden administration, Psaki held several senior roles, including White House Communications Director, State Department Spokesperson under then-Secretary of State John Kerry, Deputy White House Communications Director and Deputy White House Press Secretary during the financial crisis. She is a veteran of three presidential campaigns having served as traveling press secretary during the Obama-Biden campaign in 2008, as

25 traveling press secretary and senior advisor in 2012 and as deputy press secretary for John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004. Psaki was a spokesperson at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006 when Democrats won back the House of Representatives and has also served as Communications Director to former Congressman Joe Crowley. Prior to joining the Biden-Harris Transition Team, Psaki was the Vice President for Communications and Strategy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a CNN contributor. Psaki is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and lives in Virginia with her husband and two children. link

Chief of Staff for the Press Office and Special Assistant to the Press Secretary Amanda Finney

Amanda Finney was the Associate Director of Policy and Communications for Sidewalk Labs. Prior to joining Sidewalk, she served as the National Deputy Women’s Outreach Director for the Mike Bloomberg presidential campaign. Finney served as an organizer for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, and a Fellow for the Presidential Inaugural Committee. She also served as the Louisiana State Director and on the digital correspondence team for Hillary for America. She has previously worked in Marketing and Communications at Microsoft. Born in South Carolina, Finney is a graduate of Wake Forest University and the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University.

Principal Deputy Press Secretary: Karine Jean-Pierre Karine Jean-Pierre was Senior Advisor to President-Elect Joe Biden and Chief of Staff to Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to her role on the campaign, she served as Chief Public Affairs Officer for MoveOn.org and an NBC and MSNBC Political Analyst. Jean-Pierre served as Regional Political Director for the White House Office of Political Affairs during the Obama-Biden administration and as Deputy Battleground States Director for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. She served as Southeast Regional Political Director for President Obama’s 2008 campaign, Deputy Campaign Manager for Martin O’Malley for President, Campaign Manager for the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Initiative, and Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Legislative and Budget Affairs for two members in the New York City Council. Previously, she worked at the Center for Community and Corporate Ethics, pushing major companies to change their business practices. Born in Martinique and raised in New York, Jean-Pierre is a graduate of Columbia University. link

Assistant Press Secretary Rosemary Boelin Rosemary Boeglin currently serves as a Spokesperson for the Biden-Harris Transition and served as a Rapid Response Spokesperson for the Biden-Harris Campaign. She previously served as the Northeast Press Secretary for Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, as Communications Director for the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, and as a Deputy Press Secretary for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Born in Indiana, Boeglin holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and completed her undergraduate degree at Oberlin College.

Director of Rapid Response Mike Gwin Mike Gwin served as the Deputy Rapid Response Director for the Biden-Harris Campaign, and was a spokesperson for the campaign during the post-election period. Prior to that, Gwin worked in a variety of roles, including as a Regional Press Secretary at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as the Press Secretary for Rich Cordray’s campaign for Governor in Ohio, and as a North Carolina spokesperson for Secretary Hillary Clinton’s campaign for President. Gwin started in politics as an organizer in Iowa for the Obama- Biden re-election in 2012, and later went on to serve in the administration as a Special Assistant in the U.S. Trade Representative’s office. A native of Northeast Ohio, Gwin is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Director of Message Planning Meghan Hays

Meghan Hays was Deputy Communications Director for Strategic Planning for President- elect Joe Biden on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Hays previously served as the Deputy Communications Director for Vice President Joe Biden in the Obama-Biden White House. Hays has also served in various roles in the United States Senate, presidential campaigns, and for California Governor Gray Davis. Prior to joining the Biden-Harris Campaign, she served as Executive Director for Enterprise Communications at MGM Resorts, International. Hays is a native of California and graduated from University of California, Davis.

Senior Regional Communications Director Paige Hill

Paige Hill most recently served as Senior Advisor for Communications in Georgia for post- election litigation and recount for the Biden-Harris Campaign. She also served as Surrogate Communications Director, Regional Communications Director and South Carolina Communications Director for the Biden-Harris campaign. Before joining the campaign, Hill served as Communications Director to former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean for his 2018 bid for Governor in Tennessee. Prior to working on campaigns, Hill was an on-air reporter at

Nashville’s ABC affiliate and Oklahoma City’s NBC affiliate. Born in Oklahoma, Hill is a graduate of Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri.

Press Assistant Michael Kikukawa

Michael Kikukawa is the Rapid Response Coordinator for the War Room at the Democratic National Committee. He previously served as Communications Associate and Director of LGBTQ Media for the DNC, and as assistant to DNC Chair Tom Perez, CEO Mary Beth Cahill, and Deputy CEO Sam Cornale. In the immediate run-up to the 2018 midterm elections, Kikukawa was Press Assistant for Finkeanuer for Congress. Born in Hawai‘i, Kikukawa is a graduate of Harvard University.

Senior Director of Coalitions Media Jennifer Molina

Jennifer Molina serves as Spokesperson for the Biden-Harris Transition and served as Latino Media Director for the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to her role on the campaign, she was the Communications Director for the California League of Conservation Voters. Molina also served as Press Secretary for California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. Before joining the California Attorney General’s Office, Molina worked as the Constituency Media Director in Nevada for Hillary Clinton for President. Molina also held various roles managing ethnic and state media at the Center for American Progress (CAP) and its Action Fund. Born in Colombia and raised in Connecticut, Molina is a graduate of Hope College.

Assistant Press Secretary Kevin Munoz

Kevin Munoz currently serves on the Biden-Harris Transition working on the Agency Review Team for the Department of Homeland Security. Prior to that, he was the Florida Press Secretary for the Biden-Harris campaign and a Regional Press Secretary and the Nevada Press Secretary for the Biden for President primary campaign. Before joining the campaign, Munoz was an Account Executive at SS+K, a political and non-profit advertising agency. Born in Florida, Munoz is a graduate of Vanderbilt University.

Assistant Press Secretary Vedant Patel

Vedant Patel served as Regional Communications Director on the Biden-Harris Campaign. During President-elect Biden’s primary campaign, Patel served as the Nevada and Western Primary-States Communications Director. Previously, Patel worked as Communications Director to Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Western Regional Press Secretary at the Democratic National Committee, and Communications Director to Congressman Mike Honda. Born in India and raised in California, Patel is a graduate of the University of California-Riverside and the University of Florida. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife.

Press Assistant Angela Dela Cruz Perez

Angela Dela Cruz Perez serves as a Press Assistant on the Biden-Harris Transition, and served as National Communications Assistant and Communications Intern on the Biden- Harris Campaign. Prior to her role on the campaign, she worked as an intern for the CBS News Political Unit, and also held internships at the Georgetown University Office of Communications and for Congresswoman Grace Meng. Born in New York, Perez is a graduate of Georgetown University.

Director of Broadcast Media Mariel Sáez

Mariel Sáez is the Deputy Communications Director for the Presidential Inaugural Committee and served as Women’s Media Director for the Biden-Harris Campaign. For over a decade, Sáez has worked for House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, most recently serving as his Deputy Communications Director. In that role, she communicates the House legislative schedule and helps craft and coordinate the messaging strategy for House Democrats’ agenda. Sáez has also served as National Press Secretary, Maryland Press Secretary, and Press and Research Assistant for Leader Hoyer. Sáez, who is Puerto Rican, was raised in Southern Maryland and is a graduate of St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Press Assistant Amijah Townsend-Holmes

Amijah Townsend-Holmes served as a Personnel Assistant on the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to her role on the transition, she served as the Communications Assistant to Vice President-elect Harris. She previously worked as the Executive Assistant to the Deputy Campaign Manager and Communications Director and Special Projects Coordinator for the Biden-Harris campaign. Originally from Pennsylvania, Townsend-Holmes is a graduate of Spelman College.

Senior Advisor for Communications to the Chief of Staff Remi

Yamamoto1

Remi Yamamoto served as the traveling national press secretary on the Biden-Harris Campaign, a position she held in the primary and continues to serve in for the transition. Prior to the campaign, Yamamoto served on numerous Democratic campaigns across the country, from serving as a regional press secretary on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign to leading communications in the 2018 Iowa governor’s race and in the 2017 Virginia Democratic gubernatorial primary. She began her career at Precision Strategies providing strategic communications advice to businesses, organizations, and political campaigns. Originally from Hawaii, Yamamoto is a graduate of the George Washington University.

Director of Research Megan Apper

Megan Apper leads the Research Team on the Biden-Harris Transition and served as Research Director for the Biden-Harris Campaign. Apper has held prior research roles on the campaigns of Senator Tim Kaine and Senator Maggie Hassan. Apper also worked as a reporter for BuzzFeed News. Originally from New York, Apper is a graduate of Binghamton University.

Counselor to the President: Steve Ricchetti

Steve Ricchetti served as Chairman of the Biden-Harris campaign. Throughout his decades of public service, Ricchetti has held senior roles on Capitol Hill and at the White House, including as Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to Vice President Biden, Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton, Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs for President Clinton during the impeachment hearings, and Executive Director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 1992, when women won a record number of seats. Before joining the Obama-Biden administration in 2009, Ricchetti was the founder and president of an independent government relations and political consulting firm. Prior to joining the Biden-Harris campaign, Ricchetti was Managing Director of the Penn Biden Center. A native of Ohio, Ricchetti is a graduate of Miami University and George Mason University School of Law. link

Austin Lin, Deputy Director of Technology

Austin Lin serves as the Director of Information Technology and Security for the Biden- Harris Transition. Prior to the transition, he led Security and IT Systems teams at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and served as a Technical Program Manager on Facebook’s Infrastructure team. During the Obama-Biden administration, Lin served in multiple operations and technology roles including as Deputy Director of Information Technology and Associate Director for Operations. Originally from Illinois, Lin is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

David Recordon, Director of Technology

David Recordon currently serves as the Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the Biden- Harris Transition. He previously served in the Obama-Biden administration through the U.S. Digital Service before being appointed as the first Director of White House Information Technology where his teams led massive cybersecurity, efficiency, and modernization efforts. Recordon learned to program at the public elementary school he attended and has spent his almost two-decade career working at the intersection of technology, security, open source software, public service and philanthropy. Originally from Oregon, Recordon is looking forward to moving back to Washington D.C. with his fiancé and dog.

Director of Oval Office Operations: Annie Tomasini native of Boston and graduate of Boston University Annie Tomasini serves as President Elect Biden’s Traveling Chief of Staff, where she ensures the execution of day to day affairs and provides strategic counsel to the President Elect. Tomasini has served the Biden family for over a decade in several positions, including as Deputy Press Secretary for Vice President Biden and Press Secretary for Senator Biden when he was Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Previously, Tomasini was Senior Director of State, Local, and Community Relations and Strategic Outreach at Harvard Public Affairs and Communications, where she oversaw the relationships with Harvard University’s external stakeholders, host communities, and state and local government. She began her career at Rasky Partners Inc, one of the largest public relations firms in New England. Tomasini also serves on the non-profit Board of Directors for the Boys and Girls Club of Dorchester. A native of Massachusetts, Tomasini is a graduate of Boston University. link

Personal Aide to the President of the United States Stephen Goepfert

Stephen Goepfert has served as the Personal Aide to President-elect Joe Biden throughout the Biden-Harris Campaign and the transition. Goepfert began his career in politics in 2008 as a Field Organizer for the Obama-Biden Campaign in New Hampshire. He worked in the Obama-Biden administration for nearly seven years, serving as the Deputy Director of the Office of Presidential Correspondence and then as Special Assistant and Senior Advisor to Vice President Biden’s Chief of Staff, Steve Ricchetti. Following the administration, Goepfert worked in New York State government and at The Rockefeller Foundation. A native of New York, Goepfert is a graduate of The George Washington University.

Deputy Director of Oval Office Operations Ashley Williams

Ashley Williams serves as Trip Director to the president-elect on the Biden-Harris Transition and also served as Trip Director to the president-elect on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Williams is the first Black woman to hold this role for a successful presidential candidate. Prior to the campaign, Williams served as Special Advisor and Director of Special Projects to the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State. Having served the Biden family in various capacities for a decade, Williams also served as Senior Assistant to Dr. Jill Biden in the Obama-Biden administration. A native of Tallahassee, Florida, Williams is a graduate of Georgetown University, George Washington

University Graduate School of Political Management, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Director of White House Office of Presidential Personnel: Cathy Russell Former resident fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; former Staff Director of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and as Senior Counsel to Senator Patrick J. Leahy; graduated from Boston College Ambassador Cathy Russell serves on the Advisory Board of the Biden-Harris Transition Team and served as Vice Chair of the Biden-Harris Campaign. Before that, Ambassador Russell was a resident fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. During the Obama-Biden administration, Ambassador Russell served for all eight years at the White House and the U.S. Department of State, including as Deputy Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden and the U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues, where she led efforts to integrate women’s issues into US foreign policy. Previously, she served as the senior advisor on international women’s issues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, as the Staff Director of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and as Senior Counsel to Senator Patrick J. Leahy. Ambassador Russell serves on multiple boards and advisory committees, including board co-chair of the Women’s Foreign Policy Group, a board member of Women for Women International, as well as a member of the Sesame Street Global Advisory Group, the Leadership Council for Women in National Security Steering Committee, the National Security Action Advisory Council, the Thomson Reuters Trust Women Foundation, and the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council. A native of Pennsylvania, Ambassador Russell graduated from Boston College and the George Washington University Law School. link

Director of the Domestic Policy Council Ambassador Susan Rice Deeply experienced, talented negotiator who has played a key role in winning major concessions and sealing agreements with America’s toughest adversaries to advance U.S. national interests Has exceptional leadership, policy formulation and implementation experience as well as extremely well-honed interagency process and crisis management skills

Ambassador Susan E. Rice will serve as Domestic Policy Advisor and Director of the Domestic Policy Council. She will coordinate the formulation and implementation of President-elect Biden’s domestic policy agenda to build back better. Rice is among our nation’s most senior and experienced government leaders, bringing unparalleled skill in harnessing the power of the federal government to serve the American people. Rice served

32 as National Security Advisor from 2013-2017, where she directed and implemented the Obama-Biden Administration’s national security policy in all areas including: global health, climate policy, international trade, development and economic issues, relationships with allies, competition and cooperation with China and Russia, and managing U.S. foreign relations with all regions of the world. As U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and a member of the Cabinet from 2009-2013, Ambassador Rice won major concessions and sealed important agreements with America’s toughest adversaries and worked to advance U.S. interests and to promote global development, democracy and human rights.

Previously, Rice served President Bill Clinton as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs, and Director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping at the National Security Council from 1993-2001. This year, she co-chaired DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Re-open DC Advisory Commission during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is currently a Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow at American University and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. Ambassador Rice received her master’s degree and Ph.D. in international relations from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and her B.A. with honors in history from Stanford University. link

Director of Management & Administration Anne Filipic

Anne Filipic recently served as the Chief Program Officer and the Chief Operating Officer at the Obama Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, she led Enroll America, a national healthcare coalition designed to maximize the number of Americans who enroll and retain healthcare coverage through the Affordable Care Act. Filipic served as Deputy Director of Public Engagement in the Obama-Biden White House and Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Obama-Biden Administration. She also served as the Deputy Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee and on President Obama’s 2008 campaign. Originally from Ohio, Filipic is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis.

Director of Scheduling & Advance Ryan Montoya

Ryan Montoya served as the Director of Scheduling & Advance for Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to joining the campaign, Montoya served as the Chief Technology Officer for the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. A veteran of both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns, Montoya served as an Advance Associate in the Obama-Biden Administration. Montoya served as a senior advisor on John Edwards for President in the 2008 election cycle and as Elizabeth Edwards Trip Director on John Kerry for President in 2004. During the Clinton Administration, he served in the Office of the Secretary at the Department of Energy. Montoya earned an MBA from Sacramento State

University, an MA in International Relations from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and a BA in Government and International studies from University of Notre Dame.

Deputy Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel Gautam Raghavan

Gautam Raghavan serves as Deputy Head of Presidential Appointments on the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to joining the transition, Raghavan served as Chief of Staff to U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Previously, Raghavan served as an Advisor to the Biden Foundation, and as Vice President of Policy for the Gill Foundation, one of the oldest and largest private foundations dedicated to the cause of LGBTQ equality. During the Obama-Biden Administration, Raghavan served in the White House as the liaison to the LGBTQ community as well as the Asian American & Pacific Islander community, and in the White House Liaison Office for the U.S. Department of Defense and as Outreach Lead for the Pentagon’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Working Group. A first-generation immigrant, Gautam was born in India, raised in Seattle, and graduated from Stanford University. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his husband and their daughter.

Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel Karen Andre

Karen Andre served as a Senior Advisor to the Biden-Harris Campaign in Florida and for National Faith Outreach. Prior to her role on the campaign, she served as Political Director of Organizing Together 2020 in Florida. She previously served as Senior Advisor to Andrew Gillum in his primary win as Democratic nominee for governor of Florida in 2018. From 2014 to 2017, Andre served as a Presidential appointee in the Obama-Biden administration as the White House Liaison to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She is an attorney and first generation Haitian-American born in New York and raised in Florida.

Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel Jamie Citron

Jamie Citron serves as the Interviews Lead on the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to joining the transition, Citron served as Chief of Staff at Adler University. Previously, Jamie served as the Director of Development Strategy at the Barack Obama Foundation. During the Obama-Biden administration, Citron served as the Deputy Director of the White House Visitors Office, and in the Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the US Department of Health and Human Services. Citron was born and raised in Illinois and is a graduate of Hampshire College and the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.

Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel Corina Cortez

Corina Cortez serves as the Domestic Lead for Presidential Appointments on the Biden- Harris Transition. Previously, Cortez served as the Senior Vice President for Strategic Opportunities and Chief of Staff at The Rockefeller Foundation in New York City. Her commitment to public service dates back to the Clinton administration, where she served as the Deputy Chief of Staff and later the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Over more than two decades, Cortez has championed the causes of public education, health care, worker rights, and the environment using ballot, public education, and legislative campaigns to advance positive change. During this time, she held senior leadership roles at the National Education Association, the Children’s Defense Fund, and national strategic consulting firms. A native of Texas, Cortez graduated summa cum laude from the University of Incarnate Word in San Antonio and received her Juris Doctor degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Senior Associate Director Matt Dannenberg

Matt Dannenberg served as Wisconsin Coalitions Director for the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to the campaign, Dannenberg served as Census Director at the nonprofit, Wisconsin Voices, where he coordinated civic engagement campaigns around the 2020 Census and voter registration. Dannenberg has also served as the Legislative and Communications Director at the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin and as a personnel volunteer for Governor Evers transition team. Dannenberg started his career at Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters as an organizer, Field Director, and Political Director. Dannenberg is a proud member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He lives in Milwaukee, WI with his spouse Emma and puppy Butters.

Director for Leadership & Training Dani Durante

Dani Durante serves on the Appointments Team for the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to joining the transition, Durante served as a Senior Program Manager on the diversity and inclusion team at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Previously, she served as the People Programs and Operations Manager for the Obama Foundation, as well as the Senior Director of National Operations at OneGoal, an organization focused on ensuring all students have an equitable opportunity to achieve their postsecondary aspirations. Having spent the majority of her career within education-focused nonprofits, Durante has also held roles at Teach for America and Save the Children. Originally from Albuquerque, she is a graduate of the University of New Mexico.

Senior Associate Director Stacy Eichner

Stacy Eichner serves on the Intergovernmental Affairs team for the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to joining the transition, Eichner was the Florida Deputy State Director for the Biden-Harris Campaign and the National Political Chief of Staff for the Biden for President primary campaign. Prior to her roles on the Biden campaign, Eichner served as Deputy Political Director for United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and Florida Surrogates Director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Eichner has also held roles at the Democratic National Convention Committee and the Democratic National Committee as a top aide to the Chair. Born in Florida, Eichner is a graduate of the University of Florida.

Senior Associate Director Danielle Okai

Danielle Okai was Chief of Staff to the Political Department on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to her role on the campaign, Okai served in Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs as Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Commission and Special Assistant to the Secretary of Intergovernmental Affairs. Okai served as Political Operations Manager and Deputy Political Director on Governor Tom Wolf’s 2018 reelection campaign. Okai also taught K-4 Spanish in Camden, NJ and was a Fulbright Teaching Assistant in Cartagena, Colombia. Originally from Connecticut, Okai is a graduate of Tufts University.

Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel Katie Petrelius

Katie Petrelius serves as the National Finance Director for the Biden Inaugural Committee and served as the National Finance Director for the entirety of the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to her role on the campaign, she served as the Director of Development for the Biden Foundation. Petrelius served as the Northeast regional finance director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee during the 2014 and 2016 campaign cycles. She also served as national finance director for Congressman Joe Kennedy III. Originally from Haddonfield, New Jersey, Petrelius is a graduate of Drew University.

Senior Associate Director Jacob Sztraicher

Jacob Sztraicher serves as a Strategy and Operations Deputy on the Biden-Harris Transition Appointments team. Prior to joining the Transition, Sztraicher worked with public opinion pollsters at the Democratic data firm, TargetSmart, and as a researcher at Prime Policy Group before that. During the last year of the Obama-Biden administration, Sztraicher served as the Associate Director for Technology and Operations in the Presidential

Personnel Office. Previously, Sztraicher worked as a contractor at the United States Postal Service and the Defense Health Agency. Originally from California, Sztraicher earned his bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia, He currently lives in Richmond, VA with his spouse.

Special Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff for the Office of Presidential Personnel Rachel Wallace

Rachel Wallace served as the advisor for women’s engagement for the Biden-Harris campaign. In that role, she led the campaign’s efforts to engage and mobilize women voters, building one of the largest coalitions that turned out in record numbers. Prior to joining the campaign, she was the speechwriter and communications advisor for U.S. Senator Brian Schatz. During the Obama administration, Wallace directed public affairs for U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Cathy Russell at the U.S. Department of State. Previously, she worked in nonprofit strategic communication. A Pennsylvania native, Wallace is a graduate of The George Washington University.

Senior Associate Director Allison Wong

Allison Wong serves as an Operations Associate for the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to joining the Transition, Wong was the Senior Manager, Strategic Initiatives at the ONE Campaign, an advocacy organization campaigning to end extreme poverty and preventable diseases. In this role, she managed the implementation of ONE’s strategic plan and spearheaded the operational response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wong also worked at the United Nations Foundation where she supported the COO in a variety of roles, and began her career as an intern at the White House Visitors Office. Originally from Minnesota, Wong graduated from Grinnell College.

Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel Thomas Zimmerman

Thomas Zimmerman serves as Deputy Lead for National Security Personnel on the Biden- Harris Transition. Prior to joining the transition, Zimmerman worked at the Pacific Council on International Policy and the Center on International Cooperation. He started his career working in Afghanistan on education programs before joining President Obama’s 2008 campaign. Zimmerman served in the Obama-Biden administration as Special Assistant to the National Security Advisor at the White House and Country Director for Pakistan at the Department of Defense. Originally from Texas, Zimmerman is a graduate of Williams College and the Fletcher School. He lives in Alexandria, VA, with his partner.

Director of Speechwriting Vinay Reddy

Vinay Reddy serves as a speechwriter on the Biden-Harris Transition and served as Senior Advisor and Speechwriter for the Biden-Harris Campaign. He previously served as chief speechwriter to Vice President Biden in the second term of the Obama-Biden White House, after which, he worked as Vice President of Strategic Communications at the National Basketball Association. During the Obama-Biden Administration, he also served as senior speechwriter at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services, deputy speechwriter for the Obama-Biden reelection campaign, and speechwriter for his home state Senator, Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Reddy grew up in Dayton, Ohio, the middle of three sons in an immigrant family and is a product of Ohio public schools from kindergarten to Miami University to The Ohio State University College of Law. He currently lives in New York with his wife and their two daughters.

Platform Manager Brendan Cohen

Brendan Cohen served as the Deputy Director of Editorial on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to that, he was a Senior Platform Strategist on the Biden for President primary campaign. Cohen previously served as the Digital Director for Governor Evers’ gubernatorial campaign in Wisconsin, as Digital Director for Dan Koh’s congressional campaign in Massachusetts, and worked at New Blue Interactive. Originally from Wisconsin, Cohen is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty

Rob Flaherty serves as Digital Director for the Biden-Harris Transition and served as Digital Director on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to his role on the Biden-Harris Campaign, he served as Digital Director for Beto for America, Deputy Digital Communications Director for Hillary for America in 2016, and Director of Digital Media at the DNC. Flaherty also worked as Creative Director for Priorities USA. Originally from Massachusetts, Flaherty is a graduate of Ithaca College.

Digital Partnerships Manager Maha Ghandour

Maha Ghandour serves as the Digital Partnerships Manager on the Biden-Harris Presidential Inaugural Committee. Previously, Ghandour was a Digital Partnerships and Influencer Manager on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to her role on the campaign, Ghandour worked in entertainment in the Digital Media, Branded Lifestyle, and Non Scripted Television departments at the talent agency WME in Los Angeles. She previously worked at Endeavor’s 160/90 creative agency in Brand Partnerships. Born in California and raised in Washington state, Ghandour is a graduate from Cornell University.

Video Director Jonathan Hebert

Jonathan Hebert served as Deputy Video Director on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to the campaign, he worked as Digital Video Director for Our Turn Action Network, an education advocacy organization. In 2018, he directed paid media for Reach The Summit, a committee supporting Jared Polis’ successful campaign for Colorado Governor. Originally from North Carolina, Hebert is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Director of Platforms Jaime Lopez

Jaime Lopez serves as the Social Media and Audience Development Director for the Biden- Harris Transition. Prior to joining the transition, Lopez was Regional Digital Organizing Director – South for the Biden-Harris Campaign. Lopez has previously worked for various Democratic campaigns and non-profits including Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign as Florida mobilization director, social media manager for the Cancer Research Institute, social media associate at the ACLU, and Florida deputy digital director for Hillary for America. Lopez was raised in California and is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.

Creative Director Carahna Magwood

Carahna Magwood serves as the Design Director on the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to joining the transition, Magwood held the position of Deputy Design Director on the Biden- Harris Campaign. Prior to her role on the campaign, she served as Lead Graphic Designer for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation where she led the creative strategy for DC’s largest policy conference on issues impacting African Americans and the global black community. During her years in DC, she served as founding principal of her own design firm, Lemonaid, where she created websites and branding for small businesses with a focus on design thinking. Born in Alabama and raised in Georgia, Magwood is a graduate of Howard University. She currently lives in Philadelphia, with her partner and son.

Designer Abbey Pitzer

Abbey Pitzer served as a Brand Designer on the Biden-Harris Campaign. She served as the Junior Graphic Designer for the Biden Campaign during the 2020 presidential primary election. Before joining the campaign, Pitzer was a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. Originally from Pennsylvania, Pitzer graduated from the Graphic Design Communication Program at Jefferson University.

Traveling Content Director Olivia Raisner

Olivia Raisner serves as the Traveling Digital Director for the Biden-Harris Transition, a

39 position she held on the Biden-Harris Campaign since the primary. Prior to the campaign, Raisner served as the Digital Director for Tax March and as a producer at Putnam Partners where she wrote and produced television advertisements for Democratic candidates during the 2018 midterm elections. She began her career in communications on the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Originally from Massachusetts, Raisner is a graduate of Bowdoin College.

Deputy Director Of Digital Strategy Rebecca Rinkevich

Rebecca Rinkevich was the Director of Digital Rapid Response for the Biden-Harris Campaign. Previously, Rinkevich was the Director of Political Programs at Bully Pulpit Interactive, where she ran the agency’s large electoral engagements and embedded with organizations as they scaled their digital operations. A native of Florida, Rinkevich graduated from Davidson College.

Partnerships Manager Aisha Shah

Aisha Shah served as a Digital Partnerships Manager on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Shah currently serves as an Advancement Specialist for the Smithsonian Institution. Prior to this role, Shah worked as an Assistant Manager on the Corporate Fund of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, supporting the first-ever expansion of a presidential memorial. Shah also served as a Strategic Communications Specialist at Buoy, an integrated marketing firm that specializes in social impact communications, as well as Spitfire Strategies, where she enabled nonprofits to use pop culture as a tool for social change. Born in Kashmir and raised in Louisiana, Shah is a graduate of Davidson College.

Deputy Director Of Digital Strategy Christian Tom

Christian L. Tom is the Digital Director for the Biden-Harris Presidential Inaugural Committee. Previously, Tom served as Director of Digital Partnerships for the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to his role on the campaign, he was Senior Vice President at Group Nine Media and Publisher at NowThis and The Dodo. Tom previously worked at Twitter and Google / YouTube in revenue roles. Originally from New York, Tom is a graduate of Stanford University.

Director of Digital Engagement Cameron Trimble

Cameron Calvin Trimble serves as the Deputy Digital Director for the Presidential Inaugural Committee. He served as the Director of African American Paid Media for the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to his role on the campaign, Trimble was a principal on the communications team at Precision and served as senior public affairs specialist for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. He also served as

40 the communications director for Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson. Raised in Ohio, Trimble is a graduate of Howard University.

Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy Joelle Gamble

Joelle Gamble currently serves on the Biden-Harris Transition’s domestic economic policy team. Prior to joining the transition, she served as a principal at Omidyar Network, a social change venture. She was Senior Advisor to the President and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute and National Director of the Roosevelt Institute’s network for emerging leaders in public policy. Joelle began her career as an organizer running campaigns for economic opportunity and higher education access in California. Originally from California, Gamble is a graduate of UCLA and Princeton University.

Deputy Director of the National Economic Council David Kamin

David Kamin is Professor of Law at New York University School of Law. Prior to joining NYU, Kamin served in the Obama-Biden White House as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and also worked as special assistant, and later adviser, to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. He has also worked at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Committee for Economic Development. Originally from Arizona, Kamin is a graduate of Swarthmore College and NYU Law, and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two daughters.

Deputy Director for the National Economic Council for Financial Reform and Consumer Protection Bharat Ramamurti

Bharat Ramamurti is the Managing Director of the Corporate Power program at the Roosevelt Institute. He was also appointed in April to serve on the Congressional Oversight Commission for the CARES Act by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Previously, Ramamurti was the top economic adviser to Senator Elizabeth Warren during her 2020 presidential campaign and senior counsel for banking and economic policy in her Senate office. Born in Massachusetts, Ramamurti is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife and two daughters.

Staff Secretary Jessica Hertz

Jessica Hertz currently serves as the General Counsel for the Biden-Harris Transition. During the Obama-Biden administration, Hertz served as Principal Deputy Counsel in the Office of the Vice President, Special Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General in the Department of Justice, and Counselor to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the Office of Management and Budget. Hertz worked as a Director and Associate General Counsel for Facebook’s regulatory team and

41 was a Partner at the law firm Jenner & Block. Originally from New York, Hertz is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Chicago Law School.

Deputy Staff Secretary Michael Hochman *new*

Michael Hochman is a member of the law firm Monzack Mersky Browder and Hochman, P.A. in Wilmington, Delaware. He is a litigator with extensive experience in both state and federal courts. Hochman has also served as a trial lawyer with the State of Delaware’s Office of the Public Defender. After law school, he clerked for the Delaware Court of Chancery. Hochman is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Boston College Law School. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and their three children.

Stefanie Feldman, Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the Director of the Domestic Policy Council *new*

Stefanie Feldman has worked for President-elect Biden for most of the past decade, most recently serving as the national Policy Director for the Biden-Harris Campaign. She previously worked as the inaugural Policy Director for the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware’s Joseph R. Biden School of Public Policy & Administration. Prior to her role at the University, she served at the White House for five years, ultimately serving as Vice President Biden’s Deputy Director for Domestic and Economic Policy. Originally from Georgia, she holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. in Public Policy Studies from Duke University.

Catherine Lhamon, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council for Racial Justice and Equity *new*

Catherine Lhamon chairs the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, to which President Obama appointed her in 2016. Until December 2020, Lhamon served as Legal Affairs Secretary to California Governor Gavin Newsom. Before then, Lhamon was Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education, to which President Obama nominated her and the Senate confirmed her in 2013. Lhamon has also litigated civil rights cases at National Center for Youth Law, Public Counsel Law Center, and the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. Lhamon taught federal civil rights appeals at Georgetown University Law Center in the Appellate Litigation Program and clerked for the Honorable William A. Norris on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Born in Virginia and raised in California, Lhamon graduated from Amherst College and Yale Law School. Lhamon lives in California with her husband and two daughters.

Carmel Martin, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council for Economic Mobility *new*

Carmel Martin was a senior policy advisor for the Biden for President campaign. Prior to joining the campaign, she was the National Policy Director for Beto for America. Martin served as the assistant secretary for policy and budget at the U.S. Department of Education during the Obama-Biden Administration. Martin was a founding employee and, after her service in the Obama-Biden Administration, she was the executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank in Washington, D.C. Prior to her appointment by President Obama, Martin served as general counsel and deputy staff director of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in the United States Senate under the leadership of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. She also served as chief counsel and senior policy advisor to former Sen. Jeff Bingaman and special counsel to former Sen. Tom Daschle. Early in Martin’s career, she worked as a trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice and as a member of Hogan and Hartson’s (now Hogan Lovells) education practice. She graduated with a J.D. and master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Texas. After graduate school, Martin was a law clerk to Thomas M. Reavley, judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

Tyler Moran, Special Assistant to the President for Immigration for the Domestic Policy Council *new*

Tyler Moran most recently served as Executive Director of the Immigration Hub, a project of the Emerson Collective. Tyler previously served as Senior Policy Advisor to Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and in the Domestic Policy Council in the Obama- Biden White House. While at DPC, Moran worked on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the President’s 2013 immigration reform bill. Prior to working in government, Tyler worked for the National Immigration Law Center, the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition and taught high school at the Tilton School. Moran is a graduate of St. Lawrence University and the Harvard Graduate School of Education and currently lives in Boise, Idaho with her husband and two sons.

Esther Olavarria, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council for Immigration *new*

Esther Olavarria serves as a member of the Biden-Harris Department of Homeland Security Agency Review Team. Prior to this role, she served in the Obama-Biden Administration in several senior positions at the Department of Homeland Security and the White House Domestic Policy Council. Previously, she spent many years on the Senate Judiciary Committee serving as Senator Edward Kennedy’s immigration counsel. Olavarria has also worked at the Immigration Hub, the Center for American Progress and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and at various non-profit legal service organizations. Born in Cuba, Olavarria is a graduate of the University of Florida College of Law. She currently lives with her family in Miami.

Christen Linke Young, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council for Health and Veterans Affairs *new*

Christen Linke Young serves as a health policy advisor for the Biden-Harris Transition. She was a fellow at the Brookings Institution, where her research focused on access to health insurance at the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy. Previously, Young was the Deputy Secretary for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. During the Obama-Biden administration, she served at the Department of Health and Human Services as the Principal Deputy Director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, which oversees private health insurance. She also served at the White House Domestic Policy Council, the HHS Office of Health Reform, and the CDC. Originally from Ohio, Young is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School and resides in Washington, DC with her husband and 2-year-old daughter.

Sonia Aggarwal, Senior Advisor for Climate Policy and Innovation *new*

Sonia Aggarwal was a co-founder and the vice president of Energy Innovation. While at Energy Innovation, she acted as founding executive director of the Climate Imperative project; led America’s Power Plan, bringing together 200 electricity policy experts; and directed the team that developed the Energy Policy Simulator to analyze the environmental, economic, and public health impacts of climate and energy policies. Prior, Aggarwal managed global research at ClimateWorks Foundation, where she worked on the McKinsey carbon abatement cost curves and led research for the American Energy Innovation Council. Born and raised in Ohio, Aggarwal graduated from Haverford College in astronomy and physics, and earned a masters at Stanford University in civil engineering

David Hayes, Special Assistant to the President for Climate Policy *new*

David Hayes is the Executive Director of the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center and an Adjunct Professor at the NYU School of Law. Hayes was Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of the Interior for Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. He served as a policy advisor for the Biden-Harris Transition, and led the energy and environmental agency review teams for the Obama-Biden Transition. Hayes is a former Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the Stanford Law School; a former Fellow at Stanford University’s Precourt Institute for Energy and Woods Institute for the Environment; and the former Chairman of the Board of the Environmental Law Institute. Born in New York, he is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Stanford Law School.

Maggie Thomas, Chief of Staff for the Office of Domestic Climate Policy *new* Maggie Thomas serves on the Biden-Harris Transition and served as a policy volunteer on the Biden-Harris Campaign. She was the Political Director at Evergreen Action, a non-profit working to advance a full government mobilization to defeat the climate crisis. In addition, Thomas served as Climate Policy Advisor to Senator Elizabeth Warren and Deputy Climate Director to Governor Jay Inslee. Thomas also worked at NextGen America, working to increase youth voter turnout on college campuses across the country. Born in California,

Thomas is a graduate of Trinity College and holds a Masters of Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment.

Jahi Wise, Senior Advisor for Climate Policy and Finance *new* Jahi Wise served as a policy volunteer on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Wise was Policy Director for the Coalition for Green Capital (CGC), an organization dedicated to accelerating investment in clean energy and climate infrastructure. Previously, Wise was a project finance associate in the Energy and Infrastructure Projects Group at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Before law school, Wise worked in economic development as a community organizer and AmeriCorps VISTA in Washington, DC. Born in Georgia and raised in Maryland, Wise is a graduate of Morehouse College, Yale School of Management, and Yale Law School. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife.

Dr. Cecilia Martinez, Senior Director for Environmental Justice *new* Dr. Cecilia Martinez served as the lead for the Council of Environmental Quality Agency Review Team on the Biden-Harris Transition. She also served on the Climate Engagement Advisory Committee and the Transition Advisory Board. She is the co-founder and Executive Director at the Center for Earth, Energy, and Democracy (CEED). Her previous positions include Associate Research Professor at the University of Delaware.. She received her B.A. from Stanford University, an MPA from New Mexico State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Delaware’s College of Urban Affairs and Public Policy.

Nadiya Beckwith-Stanley, Special Assistant to the President for Budget and Tax Policy*new*

Nadiya Beckwith-Stanley is a Policy Advisor on the Biden-Harris Transition. Before joining the Biden-Harris Transition, she was an Associate in the Tax group of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates in Washington, DC. She also served as a clerk in the chambers of the Honorable Judge Ronald L. Buch of the United States Tax Court. She began her career in public policy advocating for low-income kids and families at the Children’s Alliance based in Seattle, Washington. Beckwith-Stanley is a graduate of Pomona College and New York University School of Law with a JD and LLM in Taxation.

Sameera Fazili, Deputy Director, National Economic Council *new* Sameera Fazili is the Economic Agency lead on the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to her role she was at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta where she served as the Director of Engagement for Community and Economic Development. In the Obama-Biden Administration, Fazili served as a senior policy advisor on the White House’s National Economic Council and as a senior advisor at the U.S. Treasury Department in both Domestic Finance and International Affairs. Prior to that she was a clinical lecturer of law at Yale Law School. Originally from Buffalo, she now lives in Georgia with her husband and three children. Fazili is a graduate of Yale Law School and Harvard College.

Jeff Marootian, Special Assistant to the President for Climate and Science Agency Personnel *new*

Jeff Marootian is the Director of the District of Columbia’s Department of Transportation and serves on the U.S. Department of Transportation Agency Review Team for the Biden- Harris Transition. Prior to joining Mayor Muriel Bowser’s cabinet in 2017, Marootian served in the Obama-Biden Administration and held roles at the United States Department of Transportation as the White House Liaison, Assistant Secretary for Administration and Chief Sustainability Officer. He was the Director of LGBTQ Outreach at the Democratic National Committee during the 2012 Obama-Biden re-election campaign. Originally from New Jersey, he is an alumnus of George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Office of First Lady

Chief of Staff to Dr. Jill Biden: Julissa Reynoso Pantaleong graduate of Harvard University

Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon is a partner at the law firm of Winston & Strawn. During the Obama-Biden administration, Reynoso served as U.S. Ambassador to Uruguay and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere in the U.S. Department of State, where she developed comprehensive security and rule of law strategies for Central America and the Caribbean. Reynoso serves on the boards of several nonprofit and advocacy organizations, and was on the faculty of Columbia Law School and Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. She serves as trustee for New York-Presbyterian Hospital and for Columbia University, and is on the Board of Directors of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law and the Truman National Security Project. Reynoso was born in the Dominican Republic, migrated to the United States at the age of seven, and grew up in the Bronx, New York City. She clerked for Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the Southern District of New York, and is a graduate of Harvard University, the University of Cambridge, and Columbia Law School. link

Senior Advisor to Dr. Jill Biden: Anthony Bernal Anthony Bernal was Deputy Campaign Manager and Chief of Staff to Dr. Jill Biden on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Bernal has served as a trusted advisor and assistant to the Biden family for more than a decade. From 2017 to 2019, he served as Chief of Staff in the Office of Dr. Biden. He served for all eight years of the Obama-Biden administration in multiple leadership roles, including as Director of Scheduling and Trip Director for Dr. Biden, and as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff to Dr. Biden. He was also Director of Scheduling for Dr. Biden during the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign and served on the Obama-Biden Transition Team as Director of Scheduling and Advance for Dr. Biden. Bernal began his career in public service at the White House under both President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore on their scheduling and advance teams. Following the 2000 election, Bernal held a number of positions outside of government, including international relations work at the Coca-Cola Company and AARP, and as Director of Financial Administration of the Democratic National Convention Committee and Chief of Staff at the ALS Therapy Development Foundation, a non-profit biotechnology company. A native of Arizona, he is a graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso and attended Carleton College. link

Policy Director to Dr. Jill Biden: Mala Adiga Mala Adiga served as a senior advisor to Dr. Jill Biden and a senior policy advisor on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Previously, Adiga was Director for Higher Education and Military Families at the Biden Foundation. During the Obama-Biden administration, Adiga served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Academic Programs at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in the Secretary of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues as Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the Ambassador-at-Large, and as Director for Human Rights on the National Security Staff. Prior to that, she was Counsel to the Associate Attorney General in the Department of Justice. Before entering government service, Adiga worked on the Obama-Biden 2008 presidential campaign. Prior to the campaign, she was a litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Chicago and clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Philip Simon in the Northern District of Indiana. A native of Illinois, Adiga is a graduate of Grinnell College, the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and the University of Chicago Law School. link

Communications Director for Dr. Jill Biden: Elizabeth E. Alexander

Elizabeth E. Alexander served as a Senior Advisor on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Alexander spent the first years of the Obama-Biden administration as the Press Secretary to Vice President Biden, a role which followed her time as then-Senator Biden’s Communications Director on Capitol Hill. She has worked as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorneys’ offices in Washington, DC and Alexandria, Virginia, where she also served as a counselor to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Previously, Alexander worked as Press Secretary for the United Nations Foundation, Press Secretary to Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, Communications Director for Congressman Adam Schiff, and Deputy Press Secretary for Senator Chuck Schumer. Before joining the Biden- Harris campaign, Alexander was a Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting, where she led the firm’s gender inclusion and workplace equality communications offering. Originally from Texas, Alexander is a graduate of Texas A&M University and Georgetown University Law Center. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband and two young sons. link

White House Social Secretary: Carlos Elizondo

Carlos Elizondo was a Special Assistant to the President and Social Secretary to Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden for all eight years of the Obama-Biden administration, the first Hispanic American appointed to this position. In this role, he had responsibility for planning, managing, and successfully executing all events hosted by the Vice President and his family, to include visits by world leaders, members of Congress, business leaders, and other high-ranking dignitaries and celebrities. During the Clinton-Gore administration, Elizondo served in both the White House and in the Office of the U.S. Chief of Protocol, where he managed numerous state visits, Papal visits, the Centennial Olympic Games, the NATO 50th Anniversary Summit and other international summits. Elizondo has held

several positions outside of government, including Senior Director of Presidential Events at Georgetown University, Manager of Special Activities and Protocol at Walt Disney World, and as an Estate Manager overseeing operations for a private family estate. Originally from Texas, Elizondo is a graduate of the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio. He and his partner reside in Washington, D.C. link

Rory Brosius, Executive Director of Joining Forces *NEW*

Rory Brosius serves as the military families engagement lead on the Biden-Harris Transition Team and was a senior advisor to Dr. Jill Biden during the Biden-Harris Campaign. During the Obama-Biden administration, Brosius was the Deputy Director of Joining Forces in the Office of the First Lady. After working in the White House, she launched her own social impact consulting firm and was the Advisor for Military Families to the Biden Foundation. Earlier in her career, she also held roles as a civil servant with both the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army. A social worker by training, Brosius also served in a variety of positions with non-profit organizations and educational institutions. Originally from Lockport, Illinois, she holds a Masters of Social Work from the University of Southern California and an undergraduate degree from Clemson University.

Liz Hart, Deputy Social Secretary *NEW*

Liz Hart was Executive Producer of Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris’ virtual event studios on the Biden-Harris Campaign and Transition, and Coordinating Producer of the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Prior, Hart was Senior Producer on an international campaign for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Hart served as Director of Message Events for Vice President Joe Biden during the Obama-Biden administration, as director of the 2016 Democratic National Convention’s media studio, and as an Advance Associate for the White House. Outside of government, Hart is a six-year livestream producer for Times Square New Year’s Eve, managed audience technology for four Super Bowl Halftime Shows, and has overseen special projects for the Motion Picture Association and UN Foundation, among others. Hart previously worked in event hospitality for the Disney Event Group at Walt Disney World, Marriott International, and for multiple planning and design firms in New York City. Hart opened her own company in 2015 to focus on mission-driven projects around women’s empowerment, kids and family entertainment, and innovative technology. Originally from Virginia, Hart is a graduate of Virginia Tech.

Michael LaRosa, Press Secretary *NEW*

Michael LaRosa was the Traveling Press Secretary and Chief Spokesperson for Dr. Jill Biden on the Biden-Harris Campaign and Transition. Prior to joining the campaign, LaRosa was Communications Director for the House Democratic Policy Communications Committee in the Office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He also served as Communications Director for the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources under Ranking Member Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA). LaRosa was a booking and segment producer for MSNBC’s Hardball and a

writer for MSNBC’s digital platforms. Before his time as a TV producer, LaRosa was an aide to the Deputy Director of OPM, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Illinois Congresswoman Melissa Bean. Born and raised in Easton, PA, he holds a Master’s degree from the American University and an undergraduate degree from Seton Hall University.

Gina Lee, Director of Scheduling and Advance *NEW*

Gina Lee is the Deputy Director of the Office of Dr. Jill Biden at the Biden-Harris Presidential Inaugural Committee. On the Biden-Harris campaign she served as the Director of Scheduling and Advance to Mr. Doug Emhoff and, before that, as the National Finance Events Director. Prior to joining the campaign she was a Senior Policy Associate at the Biden Foundation supporting Dr. Biden’s work to uplift military families and advocate for affordable access to community college. Lee also held roles on the Hillary for America campaign as Scheduler to Senator Tim Kaine, and in the Obama-Biden White House Offices of Legislative Affairs and Presidential Personnel. Born in South Korea and raised on Long Island, NY, she is a graduate of Boston University.

Vanessa Lion, Deputy Policy Director *NEW*

Vanessa Lion served as Briefings Director for the Biden-Harris Campaign and on the Biden- Harris Transition. Prior to the campaign, she was a consultant at McKinsey & Co., where she primarily worked with public sector, education, and healthcare organizations. Lion also lived in Geneva, Switzerland where she worked at The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Originally from Texas, she holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s degree from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management.

Jordan Montoya, Director of Advance & Trip Director *NEW*

Jordan Montoya served as Dr. Jill Biden’s Trip Director, Senior Aide, and Scheduler on the Biden-Harris Campaign. During the Obama-Biden administration, Montoya was the Deputy Press Secretary for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and later served as Deputy Director of Advance for Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden. Prior to her role on the Biden- Harris Campaign, Montoya was a Policy Associate at the Biden Foundation supporting the development and execution of the foundation’s pillars of higher education, military families, and foreign policy. Additionally, she served as an Associate Director at the international non-profit organization Save the Children. Born in Colorado, Montoya is a graduate of Stanford University.

Garima Verma, Digital Director *NEW*

Garima Verma served as an audience development and content strategist on the Biden- Harris Campaign. Before joining the campaign, Verma was a volunteer with the content team, designing graphics for distribution to Biden-Harris volunteers across the country. She previously worked in the entertainment space marketing films at Paramount Pictures

50 and television shows at The Walt Disney Company’s ABC Network and media agency Horizon Media. She has also served as an independent consultant in marketing, design and digital for a number of small business and non-profit clients. She was born in India and grew up in Ohio and the Central Valley of California. Verma is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles.

Office of the Vice President

Chief of Staff to the Vice President Hartina Flournoy

Tina Flournoy currently serves as Chief of Staff to former President Bill Clinton. Prior to joining President Clinton’s team, Flournoy was Assistant to the President for Public Policy at the American Federation of Teachers, an international union representing over 1.6 million members, where she directed the work of the legislative, political, field and mobilization, and human rights and community outreach departments. Flournoy has held a number of positions in the Democratic Party over the past three decades, including serving as the head of Governor Howard Dean’s Democratic National Committee transition team; traveling chief of staff to 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee, Senator Joseph Lieberman; Finance Director for the Gore 2000 Presidential Campaign; Deputy to the Campaign Manager in the 1992 Clinton-Gore Presidential Transition Office; and, in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel during the Clinton-Gore Administration. She also served as General Counsel for the 1992 Democratic National Convention and Counsel for the Democratic National Committee under Chairmen Paul Kirk and Ron Brown. After law school, Flournoy served as law clerk to the Honorable Julia Cooper Mack of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Originally from Georgia, Flournoy is a graduate of Georgetown University and Georgetown University Law Center. link

Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President Rohini Kosoglu

Rohini Kosoglu currently serves as Senior Advisor to Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris on the Biden-Harris Transition Team and previously served as Senior Advisor on the Biden- Harris Campaign. Before that, she was a Spring 2020 resident fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Kosoglu has a dedicated career in public service and was the first South Asian American woman to serve as Chief of Staff in the United States Senate. She served as Vice-President Elect Harris’ Chief of Staff for her Senate office and later for her presidential campaign. Before that, she was Policy Director for U.S. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, where she oversaw economic, health care and budget issues. She has negotiated several bipartisan bills into law and served as a senior health care advisor during the drafting and passage of the Affordable Care Act. She also previously served as a legislative aide to U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. Originally from New Jersey, Kosoglu is a graduate of the University of Michigan and George Washington University and is a mother to three young children. link

National Security Advisor to the Vice President Nancy McEldowney

Ambassador Nancy McEldowney served for over 30 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, including as U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria and as Chargé d’Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission in Turkey and Azerbaijan. During her time at the Department of State, she served as Director of the Foreign Service Institute, where she led the foreign affairs training facility

for the U.S. government, and also served as Interim President and Senior Vice President of the National Defense University. Earlier in her career, she was a leading policy advisor on Europe, including working for President Clinton as Director of European Affairs on the National Security Council staff, and as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, where she led the U.S. government’s engagement with NATO, the European Union, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Ambassador McEldowney is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and is on advisory boards for Soldier Strong, Foreign Policy for America, National Security Action, and the US Diplomatic Studies Foundation. Most recently, Ambassador McEldowney served as a Distinguished Professor and Director of the Master of Science in Foreign Service program at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Originally from Florida, Ambassador McEldowney is a graduate of New College of Florida, Columbia University and the National Defense University. link

Communications Director for the Vice President Ashley Etienne

Ashley Etienne served as a Senior Advisor on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Before that, Etienne served as Communications Director and Senior Advisor to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the first woman and person of color to hold the position. Etienne was Special Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the Cabinet in the Obama- Biden administration and also led communications on President Obama’s signature My Brother’s Keeper initiative. Prior to the Obama-Biden administration, she served as Deputy Communications Director and Spokesperson for then-House Democratic Leader Pelosi, Communications Director for House Democrats on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Spokesperson for the Corporation for National and Community Service, and as a Spokesperson in Virginia for the Obama-Biden Campaign in 2008. Etienne has provided strategic counsel to clients while at Dewey Square Group and as president of her own consulting firm, Etienne & Associates. Originally from Texas, Etienne is a graduate of Sam Houston State University and Johns Hopkins University. link

Senior Advisor and Chief Spokesperson for the Vice President: Symone Sanders Symone Sanders served as a Senior Advisor on the Biden-Harris campaign. In 2016, Sanders became the youngest presidential press secretary while working on U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’s then-presidential campaign. Before joining the Biden-Harris campaign, Sanders was a CNN political commentator and served as principal of the 360 Group LLC, where she provided strategic communications guidance to organizations, businesses, individuals, campaigns and candidates. Sanders is the former chair of the Coalition of Juvenile Justice Emerging Leaders Committee and former member of the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice, where she worked to raise the profile of young voices in the fight for juvenile justice reform and bring millennial perspectives to policy conversations.

Originally from Nebraska, Sanders is a graduate of Creighton University. She currently lives in Washington D.C. with her partner. link

Director of Management and Administration for the Office of the Vice President Cynthia Bernstein

Cynthia Bernstein serves as the Team Lead for the White House Office of Management and Administration Agency Review Team. Before joining the Biden-Harris Transition, she led large-scale project management and strategic operations in Deloitte Consulting’s Government and Public Sector practice. In the Obama-Biden administration, Cynthia managed operations, finances, and personnel as Director of Administration for the Office of Vice President Biden; she also coordinated strategic planning and budgetary matters in the White House Office of Management and Administration. Cynthia served as an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Yeshiva University, where she received her bachelor of arts degree, and is a graduate of the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. A native New Yorker, she lives with her husband in Washington, DC.

Counsel to the Vice President Josh Hsu

Josh Hsu serves as the Director of Judicial Nominations on the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to joining the Transition, Hsu served as National Policy Director for then-Senator Kamala D. Harris’s presidential campaign. Previously, he served as Deputy Chief of Staff and General Counsel in her Senate office. Before joining then-Senator Harris’s senate office, Hsu served as Chief Counsel for Nominations for former Ranking Member Patrick J. Leahy of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He has also practiced at the law firms of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and at O’Melveny & Myers LLP. In addition, he was an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, National Legal Department. Hsu served as a law clerk to the Honorable Denny Chin, then-U.S. District Judge in the Southern District of New York. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to parents of Taiwanese-descent and raised in New Jersey, Hsu is a graduate of Georgetown University and Georgetown University Law Center.

Yael Belkind, Assistant to the Chief of Staff

Yael Shoshanna Belkind was the Director of Scheduling and Confidential Assistant to former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and former Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe. During the Obama-Biden administration, Belkind worked at the State Department as the Assistant Manager of Blair House. She started her career in D.C. on the staff of Congressman Gary Ackerman and then Senator Paul Sarbanes on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. Belkind also worked on the Clinton Global

Initiative in Hong Kong. Born in New Delhi, India and raised in London, England, Belkind is a graduate of Tufts University with a degree in International Relations.

Vincent Evans, Deputy Director of the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs

Vincent Evans served as Political Director to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on the Biden-Harris Campaign during the general election and the campaign’s Southern Political Director during the primary season. Prior to this, he served on the senior staff of U.S. Representative Al Lawson of Florida, his longtime mentor, with a portfolio that focused on state and local issues. Before his role in the Congress, Evans worked as the Chief Aide to Tallahassee City Commissioner Curtis Richardson, after running his successful campaign. His experience includes stints working at a government relations firm focused on state legislative matters, in the Florida Senate Demcoratic Caucus for Democratic Leader Nan Rich and later at a cabinet-level state agency. He managed or served in leadership roles on the campaigns of the two most recent Florida Democratic gubernatorial nominees and several local, state and congressional races in Florida. Born and raised in Florida, Evans attended Florida A&M University, the nation’s highest ranked public HBCU.

Michael Fuchs, Deputy Chief of Staff

Michael Fuchs is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy Advisor to President Bill Clinton. Previously, Fuchs served in the State Department during the Obama-Biden administration as an advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Originally from New York, Fuchs is a graduate of Columbia University. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, son, and daughter.

Kate Childs Graham, Director of Speech Writing

Kate Childs Graham most recently served as a Principal at the speechwriting and strategy firm West Wing Writers and led the speechwriting team for the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Prior to West Wing Writers, she was Communications Director for U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar. During the 2016 presidential election, she wrote speeches for the Clinton- Kaine campaign and the Democratic National Convention. Previously, Childs Graham served as Director of Communications and Media Affairs at the American Federation of Teachers and as Senior Speechwriter at the American Federation of State, Municipal, and County Employees. She began her career working in the progressive faith and reproductive health movements. For years, she wrote a regular column for the National Catholic Reporter and is also the editor of the 2019 book Why I Run: 35 Progressive Candidates Who Are Changing Politics. Childs Graham is a graduate of the Catholic University of America and the United Nations-mandated University for Peace. Born in Indiana, she resides in Takoma Park, Maryland with her partner and their son.

Dr. Ike Irby, Policy Advisor

Dr. Ike Irby is currently a Senior Policy Advisor to Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris in the U.S. Senate, covering climate, environment, energy, transportation, and infrastructure. He was previously an AGU/AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow also with the Vice President-elect. Dr. Irby earned his Ph.D. in Marine Science at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science, focusing on the efficacy of environmental regulations in the face of climate change. Prior to his Ph.D., he was a physics and earth science teacher in Missouri. Dr. Irby grew up in Colorado and graduated from Bowdoin College and William & Mary.

Deanne Millison, Deputy Policy Director

Deanne Millison served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director for Senator Kamala Harris. Previously, she served as the Deputy Director for the Legislative Council and Government Affairs Team in the Mayor’s Office for the City of Chicago. Prior to working for the City of Chicago, Deanne served in several positions in Congress including Legislative Director and Oversight Investigations Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services and Counsel on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. Deanne started her legal career as an associate at Jenner & Block LLP, and later clerked for the Honorable Sharon Johnson Coleman in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Chicago. She received her B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Psychology from Washington University as a proud Ervin scholar and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Rachel Palermo, Assistant Press Secretary

Rachel Palermo serves on the communications team for the Biden-Harris Transition. Previously, Palermo was the Assistant Press Secretary and Director of Women’s Media at the Democratic National Committee. She also served as a member of the legal team for Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, where she focused on voter protection efforts. Additionally, she spent time doing strategic communications at SKDKnickerbocker. Born in Minnesota and the daughter of a Lebanese immigrant, Palermo is a graduate of St. Olaf College. She is completing her final semester at Notre Dame Law School.

Mike Pyle, Chief Economic Advisor

Mike Pyle served for five years in the Obama-Biden administration, including in the White House as a special assistant to the president for economic policy and in international affairs at Treasury and in the Office of Management and Budget. Most recently, Pyle was the global chief investment strategist at BlackRock, after prior multi-asset investing roles there, first as a portfolio manager and then as deputy chief investment officer. He began his career as a law clerk to Judge Merrick Garland. Raised in a farming community in Central Illinois, Pyle was educated at Dartmouth College, Yale Law School, and Cambridge University. He now lives in Brooklyn with his wife Chloe Schama and their three young sons.

Sabrina Singh, Deputy Press Secretary

Sabrina Singh was Press Secretary to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on the Biden- Harris campaign. Prior to her role on the campaign, Singh served as Senior Spokesperson for Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign and National Press Secretary for Cory Booker’s presidential campaign. She previously served as Deputy Communications Director for the Democratic National Committee, Spokesperson for American Bridge’s Trump War Room and Regional Communications Director on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. She has also worked at SKDKnickerbocker, served as Communications Director for Rep. Jan Schakowsky and worked at various Democratic committees. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and two dogs.

Peter Velz, Director of Press Operations

Peter Velz was Director of Press Operations for the Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Velz served in the White House Department of Communications under President Obama from 2012-17, spending three years as a press wrangler advising and accompanying the traveling press pool. After the administration, he worked for the State University of New York (SUNY) for three years as assistant vice chancellor for external affairs. Originally from Virginia, he is a graduate of Virginia Tech.

Herbie Ziskend, Deputy Communications Director

Herbie Ziskend is a communications advisor on the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior, Ziskend was Strategic Planning Advisor for the Biden-Harris campaign and a producer for the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Ziskend was Senior Vice President at SKDKnickerbocker, where he provided communications counsel to a range of clients including winning Democratic campaigns. During the Obama-Biden administration, Ziskend served as a Policy Analyst and Press and Staff Assistant in the Office of the Vice President. Prior, he was a staff member on the Obama for America campaign, Chief of Staff at the Huffington Post and Director of Public Policy at Revolution LLC. A native of Massachusetts, Ziskend is a graduate of Cornell University and the Harvard Kennedy School.

The Cabinet

Confirmation Team

Confirmations teams typically guide nominees through the process, including preparing for hearings, navigating meetings with senators, and handling incoming pressure from outside groups. The Biden team is also preparing a possible public relations blitz to "introduce nominees to the American people," a transition official said, including the possibility of having Cabinet nominees speak publicly before their confirmation hearings take place. link

It was announced this week that President-elect Joe Biden has chosen Jen Psaki to lead his team overseeing Senate confirmation process for his future Cabinet nominations, Politico reports. Psaki previously served as former President Obama’s White House. Communications director Olivia Dalton, a former Biden Senate aide and campaign consultant, will run communications and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin’s floor director, Reema Dodin, to manage legislative strategy.

• Director Nomination team: Jen Psaki • Communications Director: Olivia Alair Dalton • Legislative Director: Reema Dodin • Deputy Outreach Director for Confirmations: Jorge Neri

The Cabinet - CONFIRMED Nominees and Appointees

. Vice President - Kamala Harris . Secretary Department of State – Anthony Blinken . Secretary Department of Treasury - Janet Yellen . Secretary Department of Defense -General Lloyd Austin . Secretary Department of Justice – Merrick Garland *NEW* . Secretary Department of the Interior – Congresswoman Deb Haaland . Secretary Department of Agriculture – Secretary Tom Vilsack . Secretary Department of Commerce – Governor Gina Raimondo *NEW* . Secretary Department of Labor – Mayor Marty Walsh *NEW* . Secretary Department of Health and Human Services - Xavier Becerra . Secretary Department of Hosing and Urban Development – Rep. Marcia Fudge . Secretary Department of Transportation - Pete Buttigieg . Secretary Department of Energy – Fmr. Governor Jennifer Granholm . Secretary Department of Education – Dr. Miguel Cardona *NEW* . Secretary Department of Veteran Affairs – Dennis McDonough . Secretary Department of Homeland Security - Alejandro Mayorkas

The following have the status of Cabinet-rank:

. White House Chief of Staff – Ron Klain . Administrator Environmental Protection Agency – Michael Regan . Director Office of Management & Budget -Neera Tanden . United States Trade Representative – Katherine Tai . United States Mission to the United Nations – Linda Thomas-Greenfield . Chairman, Council on Economic Advisers -Cecilia Rouse . Administrator Small Business Administration - Isabel Guzman *NEW* . Special Presidential Envoy for Climate – Fmr. Secretary John Kerry

Cristóbal J. Alex, Deputy Cabinet Secretary

Cristóbal J. Alex served as Senior Advisor to President-elect Joe Biden on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to his role on the campaign, Alex served as the founding President of the Latino Victory Fund, and as Hillary for America’s National Deputy Director of Voter Outreach and Mobilization. Before his transition into politics, Alex worked at the Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation, and served as Director of the National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights. He started his career as a civil rights lawyer with MacDonald Hoague & Bayless. The son of immigrants and native of El Paso, Texas, Alex received his J.D. from the University of Washington where he served as student body president. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, toddler and newborn daughter.

Evan Ryan, Cabinet Secretary

Evan Ryan is a Senior Advisor for the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to this, she helped launch and lead Axios, as Executive Vice President. Ryan served under Secretary of State John Kerry as Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs and worked in the Obama-Biden White House as Assistant to the Vice President and Special Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement. Ryan served as Deputy Campaign Manager for then Senator Biden’s 2008 presidential campaign and also served on the John Kerry for President campaign and Hillary Clinton’s 2000 senatorial campaign. Ryan served in the Clinton White House, as Deputy Director of Scheduling for First Lady Hillary Clinton and as Special Assistant to the First Lady’s Chief of Staff. She has worked as a consultant for the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict and served as Deputy Chair for the governance track of the Clinton Global Initiative. She is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Ryan is from Virginia and holds a B.A. from Boston College and a Masters in International Public Policy from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

NATIONAL SECURITY

Biden will nominate officials to lead the federal government's domestic and international security efforts. These officials will oversee U.S. intelligence and defense as well as spearhead relations with world leaders and international coalitions. All of these officials must be confirmed by the Senate.

• Secretary of State - Anthony Blinken • Secretary of Defense – General Lloyd Austin • Secretary of Homeland Security – Alejandro Mayorkas • CIA Director - Ambassador William J. Burns • Director of National Intelligence – Avril Haines • Ambassador to the United Nations – Linda Thomas-Greenfield

These Officials do not need to be confirmed by the Senate:

• National Security Advisor – Jake Sullivan • Special Presidential Envoy for Climate – Fmr. Secretary John Kerry

Secretary of State: Antony Blinken

Antony Blinken has held senior foreign policy positions in two administrations over three decades, and has advised President-elect Biden on foreign policy since 2002. From 2015 to 2017, Blinken served as Deputy Secretary of State under the Obama-Biden administration. In that role, Blinken helped to lead diplomacy in the fight against ISIL, the rebalance to Asia, and the global refugee crisis, while building bridges to the innovation community. Before that, Blinken served as Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama. He chaired the Deputies Committee, the administration’s principal forum for formulating foreign policy. During the first Obama term, he was National Security Advisor to Vice President Biden. Blinken served as Democratic Staff Director for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008 and was a member of President Clinton’s National Security Council staff from 1994 to 2001. Prior to serving as foreign policy advisor during the Biden-Harris campaign and transition, Blinken served as managing director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and was the Herter/Nitze Distinguished Scholar at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Before entering public service, Blinken was a reporter for The New Republic magazine, writing extensively on foreign policy. He is the author of Ally Versus Ally: America, Europe, and the Siberian Pipeline Crisis. He has also served as a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and a global affairs analyst for CNN.

Blinken is a graduate of Harvard College and Columbia Law School. Blinken graduated from high school in Paris, where he lived from ages nine to eighteen. link

Secretary of Defense General Lloyd Austin Retired four-star General with more than 40 years of military service Worked with President-elect Biden to bring our troops home from Iraq Chief architect of the military campaign to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria Would be the first African American Secretary of Defense

General Lloyd Austin was the 12th Commander of the U.S. Central Command, retiring as a four-star general in 2016 after more than 40 years of military service. As Combined Forces Commander, General Austin led the design and execution of the military campaign to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. As commanding general of United States Forces – Iraq, he was responsible for the Army’s largest logistical effort in more than 60 years when he oversaw the transition of U.S. and Coalition military forces and equipment out of Iraq.

At the Pentagon, General Austin has served as Chief of the Joint Operations, J-3, Joint Staff, and as Director of the Joint Staff. He has commanded troops in combat at each of the one-, two-, three-, and four-star levels, and became the 200th person in history to ascend to the Army’s top rank of four-star general — the sixth African American to do so — in 2010. In addition, he was the first African American general officer to command a U.S. Army Division in combat, to lead a Corps in combat, to command an entire theater of war, to serve as Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, and to serve as Commander of U.S. Central Command. His awards include the Silver Star, two Legions of Merit, three Distinguished Service Medals, and five Defense Distinguished Service Medals. Born in Alabama and raised in Georgia, General Austin received his bachelor of science degree from West Point, his masters in education from Auburn University, and his masters in business administration from Webster University. link

Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Kathleen Hicks

Dr. Kathleen Hicks is the Senior Vice President and Director of the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. A trusted advisor to President-elect Joe Biden with decades of national security and foreign policy experience, Dr. Hicks currently leads the Biden-Harris Transition’s Defense Agency Review Team to ensure the Department of Defense is ready on day one to keep American families safe and secure.

During the Obama-Biden Administration, she served as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Forces and was confirmed by the Senate to serve as Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. She was a career civil servant in the Pentagon for more than a decade, where she rose through the ranks from Presidential

Management Intern to the Senior Executive Service. She is the recipient of distinguished service awards from three Secretaries of Defense and a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and received the DOD Senior Professional Women’s Association Excellence in Leadership Award.

Dr. Hicks is a Donald Marron Scholar at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She graduated magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke College, and earned a master’s degree and PhD from the University of Maryland and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively.

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Dr. Colin Kahl

Dr. Colin Kahl is currently a Co-Director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation, a Steven C. Házy Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and a professor of political science at Stanford University. A trusted, long-time national security advisor to President-elect Biden, Dr. Kahl is also a Strategic Advisor at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and served as Deputy Assistant to President Obama and National Security Advisor to then-Vice President Biden from 2014-2017. Dr. Kahl began his career in government as an action officer in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and later served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East from 2009-2011.

Dr. Kahl has played a lead role in the development and implementation of the Pentagon’s strategy and policy, including for a responsible drawdown and transition in Iraq, countering Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions and destabilizing activities, and strengthening the defense relationship with Israel.

Dr. Kahl was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. He earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan and a PhD from Columbia University.

Secretary of Homeland Security: Alejandro Mayorkas

Would be first Latino to run DHS and tasked with enforcing the nation’s immigration laws. A Cuban-born naturalized American citizen

Alejandro Mayorkas is the first Latino and immigrant nominated to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security. He has led a distinguished 30-year career as a law enforcement official and a nationally-recognized lawyer in the private sector. Mayorkas served as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the Obama-Biden Administration from 2013 to 2016, and as the Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from

2009 to 2013. During his tenure at DHS, he led the development and implementation of DACA, negotiated cybersecurity and homeland security agreements with foreign governments, led the Department’s response to Ebola and Zika, helped build and administer the Blue Campaign to combat human trafficking, and developed an emergency relief program for orphaned youth following the tragic January 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Mayorkas also created the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate to better ensure the integrity of the legal immigration system. Mayorkas began his government service in the Department of Justice, where he served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Central District of California, specializing in the prosecution of whitecollar crime. After nearly nine years as a federal prosecutor, he became the youngest United States Attorney in the nation, overseeing prosecutions of national significance, including the investigation and prosecution of financial fraud, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, public corruption, violent crime, cybercrime, environmental crime, international money laundering, and securities fraud. Mayorkas has also led a distinguished legal career in the private sector, at O’Melveny & Myers and most recently WilmerHale, where he has specialized in strategic counseling and crisis management. He serves several non-profit organizations focused on providing legal services to the poor, refugee resettlement, and education for underprivileged youth. Mayorkas was born in Havana, Cuba and was the highest-ranking Cuban American to serve in the Obama-Biden Administration. Mayorkas received his bachelor’s degree with distinction from the University of California at Berkeley and a law degree from Loyola Law School. link

CIA Director Ambassador William J. Burns Career diplomat who served Democratic and Republican presidents in the U.S. Foreign Service for 33 years Served as Deputy Secretary of State, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, U.S. Ambassador to Russia, and U.S. Ambassador to Jordan, among other senior national security positions Received three Presidential Distinguished Service Awards and the highest civilian honors from the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community

Ambassador William J. Burns is the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the oldest international affairs think tank in the United States. He retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014 after a 33-year diplomatic career. He holds the highest rank in the Foreign Service, career ambassador, and is only the second serving career diplomat in history to become Deputy Secretary of State.

Ambassador Burns is a crisis-tested public servant who has spent his career working to keep Americans safe and secure. Prior to his tenure as Deputy Secretary of State, he served as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2008 to 2011, U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from 2001 to 2005, and U.S. Ambassador to Jordan from 1998 to 2001. He was also executive secretary of the State Department and special assistant to former Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright; minister-counselor for political affairs at the U.S. embassy in Moscow; acting director and principal deputy director of the State Department’s policy planning staff; and special assistant to the president and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council.

Ambassador Burns has received three Presidential Distinguished Service Awards and the highest civilian honors from the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from LaSalle University and master’s and doctoral degrees in international relations from Oxford University, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar.

David S. Cohen, Deputy Director of the CIA *NEW*

David S. Cohen is a national security, finance and legal expert currently leading WilmerHale’s Business and Financial Integrity Group. From 2015 to 2017, Cohen served as Deputy Director of the CIA. In that role, Cohen helped manage the Agency’s domestic and worldwide operations, oversee strategic modernization of the Agency, and lead foreign intelligence collection, analysis, and action. He directed special projects on new technologies and how best to work with companies to advance the CIA’s mission. At the end of his tenure, Cohen was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the CIA’s highest honor.

Prior to his role at the CIA, Cohen served as Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in the Department of the Treasury, where he managed the policy, regulatory enforcement, and intelligence functions aimed at fighting illicit finance. He supervised the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and developed and administered sanctions against Iran, Russia, North Korea, and terrorist organizations. He previously served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing and in the Treasury’s general counsel’s office. Before his government service, Cohen practiced law for nearly 20 years.

Cohen earned his bachelor’s degree in government from Cornell University and his JD from Yale Law School.

Director of National Intelligence: Avril Haines

Would be the first woman to lead the intelligence community

Avril Haines has worked with President-elect Biden in various roles for more than a decade, and will become the first woman to serve as Director of National Intelligence. During the Obama administration, Haines served as Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy National Security Advisor from 2015-2017, during which time she led the National Security Council’s (NSC) Deputies Committee. From 2013-2015, Haines was the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency; she was the first woman to hold both of these positions. Avril began her service in the Obama administration in 2010 as the NSC Legal Advisor. From 2007-2008, Haines served as Deputy Chief Counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while President-elect Biden served as chairman. Haines has led the Transition’s National Security and Foreign Policy Team since its founding in June 2020. Prior to that time, she served in various roles including Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University; a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory; and a member of the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service. Haines received her bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Chicago and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. link

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations: Linda Thomas- Greenfield

Retired Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a career diplomat, is returning to public service after retiring from a 35-year career with the U.S. Foreign Service in 2017. From 2013 to 2017 she served as the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs, where she led the bureau focused on the development and management of U.S. policy toward sub- Saharan Africa. Prior to this appointment, she served as Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources (2012-2013), leading a team in charge of the State Department’s 70,000-strong workforce. Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield’s distinguished Foreign Service career includes an ambassadorship to Liberia (2008-2012), and postings in Switzerland (at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations), Pakistan, Kenya, The Gambia, Nigeria, and Jamaica. In Washington, she served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of African Affairs (2006- 2008), and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (2004-2006). Since 2017, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield has led the Africa Practice at Albright Stonebridge Group, a strategic commercial diplomacy firm chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She was also the inaugural Distinguished Resident Fellow in African Studies at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy from fall 2017 to spring 2019. She joined ISD in spring 2017 as a Senior State Department Fellow. Ambassador Thomas-

Greenfield earned a B.A. from Louisiana State University and a M.A. from the University of Wisconsin, where she worked towards a PhD. She received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from the University of Wisconsin in May 2018. link

Special Presidential Envoy for Climate: Former Secretary John Kerry

position marks the first time that the National Security Council will include an official dedicated to climate change

John Kerry served as America’s 68th Secretary of State, the first sitting Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman to serve as Secretary in over a century. Secretary Kerry elevated environmental challenges as diplomatic priorities, from oceans to hydrofluorocarbons. He was a key architect of the Paris Climate Accord, and signed the historic agreement to reduce carbon emissions with his granddaughter on his lap. The New York Times described Kerry as “America’s Mr. Diplomacy,” leading on challenges from nuclear non-proliferation to extremism. A Yale University graduate, Kerry volunteered for the Navy, serving two tours of duty in Vietnam. He was awarded a Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, and three Purple Hearts. Kerry was elected Massachusetts’ Lieutenant Governor in 1982 and US Senator in 1984. In 2009, Kerry became Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The first hearing he Chaired was on climate change. He also led Senate efforts to ratify a landmark nonproliferation treaty, successfully intervened in Afghanistan’s election crisis, and negotiated bipartisan domestic climate change legislation. Kerry’s 2018 memoir, Every Day Is Extra, was a best-seller. He has most recently been Yale University’s Distinguished Fellow for Global Affairs and Visiting Distinguished Statesman at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace spearheading programming on climate change and oceans. He co-founded World War Zero to unite unlikely allies on climate change and is a Board Member of the American Security Project. He and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry have a blended family of two daughters, three sons, and seven grandchildren. link

National Security Advisor: Jake Sullivan Has held teaching posts at Yale Law School, Dartmouth College, and the University of New Hampshire

Jake Sullivan is currently a senior policy advisor to President-elect Biden and formerly served as Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden in the Obama-Biden administration. He previously served as Director of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State and as Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. During his time in government, Sullivan was a lead negotiator in the initial talks that paved the way for the Iran nuclear deal and played a key role in the U.S.-brokered negotiations that led to a ceasefire in Gaza in 2012. He also played a key role in shaping the Asia-Pacific rebalance strategy at both the State Department and the White House.

In the years following his service in the Obama-Biden administration, Sullivan was a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he helped conceive and design a bipartisan task force project on a foreign policy for the middle class. He also held teaching posts at Yale Law School, Dartmouth College, and the University of New Hampshire. He co-founded and co-chaired the advisory board for National Security Action, a nonprofit national security advocacy organization, and served on the advisory boards of a number of organizations involved in foreign policy and national security. Sullivan was also a senior policy adviser on the Hillary for America presidential campaign in 2016. link

Samantha Power, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) *NEW*

Ambassador Samantha Power served in the Obama-Biden Administration Cabinet from 2013 to 2017 as the 28th U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations. During her time at the United Nations, Ambassador Power rallied countries to combat the Ebola epidemic, ratify the Paris climate agreement, and develop new international law to cripple ISIS’s financial networks. She worked to negotiate and implement the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals, and helped catalyze bold international commitments to care for refugees. And she advocated to secure the release of political prisoners, defend civil society from growing repression, and protect the rights of women and girls.

Prior to this role, from 2009 to 2013, Ambassador Power served on the National Security Council staff as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights. At the NSC, she was a key part of the Obama-Biden national security team, advising them on issues such as democracy promotion, UN reform, LGBTQ+ and women’s rights, atrocity prevention, and the fights against human trafficking and global corruption.

An immigrant from Ireland, Ambassador Power began her career as a war correspondent in Bosnia, and went on to report from places including Kosovo, Rwanda, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. Before her service in government, she was the founding executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Currently, Ambassador Power is the Anna Lindh Professor of the Practice of Global Leadership and

Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and William D. Zabel ’61 Professor of Practice in Human Rights at Harvard Law School. She earned a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Yohannes Abraham, Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary

Yohannes Abraham currently serves as the Executive Director of the Biden-Harris Transition, overseeing preparation for the implementation of Biden-Harris policy, personnel, and management priorities. He is also on the faculty of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where he lectures on management. During the Obama-Biden administration, Abraham served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the National Economic Council. He also worked as Chief of Staff of the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, where his team partnered with cities, states, and other key stakeholders to manage crises and support domestic and national security policy priorities. Abraham has also served on the leadership team of the Vanguard Group’s global investment unit and as a Senior Advisor at the Obama Foundation. A native of Springfield, Virginia, Abraham holds a BA from Yale College and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.

Sasha Baker, Senior Director for Strategic Planning

Sasha Baker was most recently national security advisor to Senator Elizabeth Warren and served as a Deputy Policy Director for her presidential campaign. Previously, she served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. Baker was a career budget analyst at the Office of Management and Budget, joining as a Presidential Management Fellow and serving in homeland and national security roles and as a Special Assistant to the OMB Director. She began her government career as a research assistant for the House Armed Services Committee. Originally from New Jersey, Baker is a graduate of Dartmouth College and received an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Ariana Berengaut, Senior Advisor to the National Security Advisor

Ariana Berengaut currently serves on the NSC Agency Review Team with the Biden-Harris Transition and held the COVID-19 policy portfolio as a volunteer on the Biden-Harris Campaign. She previously was a founding director at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. She served in the Obama Administration as speechwriter and counselor to then-Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken and, prior to that, as chief speechwriter and senior advisor to USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah. She started her career as a researcher at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and worked on the 2008 Obama

69 campaign. Born in Washington, D.C., she attended Brandeis University and the University of Oxford, completing her graduate fieldwork in southeastern Uganda.

Tanya Bradsher, Senior Director for Partnerships and Global Engagement

Tanya Bradsher is the National Security Agency lead on the Biden-Harris Transition Team. Prior to her role on transition, she served as Chief of Staff for Congressman Don Beyer. Bradsher served as the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama-Biden administration, led Veteran and Military Family outreach in the Office of Public Engagement, and served as the Assistant Press Secretary on the National Security Council. Bradsher is an Iraq war veteran who served 20 years in the United States Army and retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Bradsher was born in Virginia, is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., and is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and The George Washington University. She lives in Virginia with her husband and three daughters.

Rebecca Brocato, Senior Director for Legislative Affairs

Rebecca Brocato was Director of Strategy and Government Affairs at National Security Action. During the Obama-Biden Administration, she served in the White House as Director for Legislative Affairs on the National Security Council and as House Legislative Affairs Liaison. She worked previously on Middle East policy at the State Department and as an aide to Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD). Brocato began her career as a researcher focused on West and Central Africa. A Baltimore native, she is a graduate of Harvard and Oxford.

Elizabeth Cameron, Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense

Elizabeth (Beth) Cameron is the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s Vice President for Global Biological Policy and Programs and a volunteer with the Biden-Harris transition team. She previously served on the White House National Security Council staff, where she stood up the Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense and helped launch the Global Health Security Agenda. She also served at the Department of Defense as an Office Director and Senior Advisor and at the Department of State where she focused on global threat reduction programs. She was a policy director with the American Cancer Society and an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow in the health policy office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Cameron holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the Human Genetics and Molecular Biology Program at the Johns Hopkins University and is a graduate of the University of Virginia and member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Raised in Maryland, she lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband.

Tarun Chhabra, Senior Director for Technology and National Security

Tarun Chhabra is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University. He was previously a Fellow with the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institution and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House. During the Obama-Biden Administration, Chhabra served on the National Security Council staff as Director for Strategic Planning and Director for Human Rights and National Security Issues, and at the Pentagon as a speechwriter to the Secretary of Defense. Born in Tennessee and raised in Louisiana, Chhabra is a first- generation American and a graduate of Stanford University, Oxford University, and Harvard Law School.

Caitlin Durkovich, Senior Director for Resilience and Response

Caitlin Durkovich serves on the Department Homeland of Security (DHS) Agency Review Team for the Biden-Harris Transition. She is a Director at Toffler Associates and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Caitlin served as Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection and as Chief of Staff for the National Protection and Programs Directorate (the predecessor to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) at DHS during the Obama-Biden Administration. Caitlin was also a member of the Mission Assurance/Business Continuity Team at Booz Allen Hamilton. She helped launch the Internet Security Alliance in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, and iDefense, an early cyber threat intelligence service. Born in New Mexico, Caitlin is a graduate of Duke University.

Jon Finer, Principal Deputy National Security Advisor

Jon Finer serves as Deputy Head of Foreign and National Security Policy on the Biden- Harris Transition team. He previously served in the Obama White House and State Department, including as Middle East Advisor and Foreign Policy Speechwriter to then-Vice President Biden and as Chief of Staff and Director of Policy Planning for Secretary of State John Kerry. Finer began his career as a journalist in Asia and covered several conflicts, including the Iraq War, as a foreign correspondent for The Washington Post. Since leaving government, he has held positions in academia, at think tanks, and in the private sector. He has an A.B. from Harvard; a M.Phil from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Finer was born and raised in Vermont, where his parents still live, and has three younger siblings.

Juan Gonzalez, Senior Director for Western Hemisphere

Juan Sebastian Gonzalez serves on the Biden-Harris Transition Appointments Team as a Deputy for National Security Agencies. He was previously a Senior Fellow at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. Gonzalez served in the Obama-Biden Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, and in the White House as Special Advisor to Vice President Biden and National Security Council Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs. In 2017, Gonzalez was appointed by Senator Chuck Schumer to serve as a Commissioner on the bipartisan Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission, and represented the Biden campaign on the Biden-Sanders Unity

Task Force on Immigration. Born in Colombia and raised in New York, Gonzalez is a graduate of Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and son.

Sumona Guha, Senior Director for South Asia

Sumona Guha was co-chair of the South Asia foreign policy working group on the Biden- Harris campaign, and serves on the transition’s State Department Agency Review Team. Guha is Senior Vice President at Albright Stonebridge Group. Previously, she served in the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer and later, on the Secretary of State’s policy planning staff where she focused on South Asia. During the Obama-Biden Administration, she was Special Advisor for national security affairs to Vice President Biden. Guha is a graduate of Johns Hopkins and Georgetown University. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband and three children.

Ryan Harper, Deputy Chief of Staff and Deputy Executive Secretary

Ryan Harper currently serves as the Director of Planning and Staff Secretary for the Biden- Harris Transition. He previously served in a number of foreign policy and national security positions during the Obama-Biden Administration at USAID and the Office of the General Counsel at the Department of Defense. He has also held positions at the White House Office of Presidential Personnel and the U.S. Department of Justice. Prior to the transition, Harper was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Co., where he worked with public sector defense, development, and intelligence organizations. Originally from Massachusetts, he is a graduate of Stanford Law School, the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the College of the Holy Cross. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife.

Peter Harrell, Senior Director for International Economics and Competitiveness

Peter Evans Harrell is a member of the Biden-Harris Transition working on the State Department Agency Review Team and on international economic and trade policy. Since 2015, he has served as an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and as a lawyer in private practice. He has also taught international trade law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. From 2009 to 2014, he served in the Obama-Biden Administration on the State Department Policy Planning Staff and as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. Earlier in his career, Harrell worked as a journalist and as a staffer on the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign. Harrell was born in Baltimore and raised in Atlanta, where he currently resides with his wife, two children, and cat. He is a graduate of Princeton University and the Yale Law School.

Emily Horne, Senior Director for Press and NSC Spokesperson

Emily Horne serves as a volunteer on the Biden-Harris Transition Team leading communications for several national security Cabinet nominees. She joins the Biden-Harris Administration from the Brookings Institution, where she was Vice President of Communications. Horne was previously a civil servant at the State Department, where she began as an intern and served in a number of public affairs roles including Assistant Press Secretary and Director of Strategic Communications at the National Security Council, Communications Director for the Special Presidential Envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS, and Spokesperson for South and Central Asian Affairs. She also served as head of global policy communications at Twitter. Originally from Michigan, Horne holds a B.A. and M.A. from The George Washington University. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and their two sons.

Shanthi Kalathil, Coordinator for Democracy and Human Rights

Shanthi Kalathil is currently senior director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy, where her work focuses on emerging challenges to democracy. Previously in her career, she served as a senior democracy fellow at the US Agency for International Development, an associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Hong Kong-based reporter for the Asian Wall Street Journal, and an advisor to international affairs organizations. Kalathil is the co-author of Open Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rule (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2003). Originally from California, Kalathil is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Senior Director for Russia and Central Asia

Andrea Kendall-Taylor is the Russia policy lead for the Biden-Harris Transition. She previously served as a senior intelligence officer both as Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and a senior analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. Kendall-Taylor was also Senior Fellow and Director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. Originally from San Diego, Kendall-Taylor is a graduate of Princeton University and received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband and three children.

Ella Lipin, Senior Advisor to the Principal Deputy National Security Advisor

Ella Lipin serves on the Biden-Harris Transition’s national security and foreign policy team. Prior to joining the Transition, she was national security and foreign policy advisor to

Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. Lipin served as Egypt Country Director in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and in the speechwriting office of the Secretary of Defense. Raised in Oregon, Lipin is a graduate of Duke University and received an MPA from Princeton University.

Brett H. McGurk, Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa

Brett H. McGurk is currently the Frank E. Payne and Arthur W. Payne Distinguished Lecturer at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute. He has held senior national security posts across the last three administrations, most recently as Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS (2015-2018). He previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs at the State Department (2012-2015), Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Near East Affairs on the National Security Council (2007-2009), and Director for Iraq on the National Security Council (2005- 2007). McGurk graduated from the University of Connecticut and Columbia University School of Law, after which he served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Melanie Nakagawa, Senior Director for Climate and Energy

Melanie Nakagawa serves on the Biden-Harris Transition focused on climate change and energy. In the Obama-Biden Administration Nakagawa was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Transformation at the U.S. State Department and served as a strategic advisor on climate change to the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on the Policy Planning Staff. Most recently, she was Director of Climate Strategy at Princeville Capital, leading their climate and sustainability investment strategy to back technology-enabled companies delivering transformative solutions to climate change. Earlier in her career she was the Senior Energy and Environment Counsel for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. She provides her expertise on the Board of the Advanced Energy Economy Institute, REVERB Advisory Board, and as a Loomis Council Member. Born in New Jersey, Nakagawa earned a J.D. and M.A. in International Affairs from American University’s Washington College of Law and School of International Service, and an A.B. from Brown University.

Carlyn Reichel, Senior Director for Speechwriting and Strategic Initiatives

Carlyn Reichel is a member of the National Security Council Agency Review Team on the Biden Transition. On the Biden-Harris Campaign, she served as both Director of Speechwriting and Foreign Policy Director. Prior to the campaign, Reichel was the founding Communications Director for the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. Reichel joined the Department of State during the Obama-Biden Administration as a Presidential Management Fellow and went on to work as a speechwriter for foreign policy and national security officials at the State Department, the NSC, and the Office of the Vice

President. Reichel grew up in Georgia, graduated from Stanford University, and earned her Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Dr. Amanda Sloat, Senior Director for Europe

Dr. Amanda Sloat is currently serving on the policy team for the Biden-Harris Transition Team. Prior to this role, she was a Robert Bosch Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. She was also a non-resident fellow in the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship at Harvard Kennedy School. During the Obama-Biden Administration, Sloat served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Southern Europe and Eastern Mediterranean Affairs at the State Department. She also served as senior advisor to the White House’s Middle East coordinator and as senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. She previously worked as senior professional staff with responsibility for Europe policy on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. Before her government service, Sloat was a senior program officer with the National Democratic Institute and a postdoctoral fellow at Queen’s University Belfast. She has written widely on European politics, including a book (Scotland in Europe: A Study of Multi-Level Governance). Originally from Michigan, Sloat is a graduate of James Madison College at Michigan State University and holds a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh.

ECONOMIC POLICY

As the U.S. continues to fight through a recession brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, increased focus will be on whom Biden picks to lead his economic, financial and trade policies. Many of these nominees will play crucial roles in determining further coronavirus relief aid. These positions must also be confirmed by the Senate.

• Secretary of the Treasury: Janet Yellen o Deputy Secretary of the Treasury: Wally Adeyemo • Secretary of Commerce – Governor Gina Raimondo o Deputy Secretary of Commerce – Don Graves • Secretary of Labor – Mayor Marty Walsh • Chief of Small Business Administration – Isabel Guzman • Director, Office of Management and Budget: Neera Tanden • Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers: Cecilia Rouse • Member of the Council of Economic Advisers: Jared Bernstein • Member of the Council of Economic Advisers Heather Boushey • Director of the National Economic Council: Brian Deese

Secretary of the Treasury: Janet Yellen

Would be the first person to have served as Treasury Secretary, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, and Chair of the Federal Reserve If confirmed, she would be the first woman to lead the Treasury Department in its 231-year history Janet Yellen served as the 15th Chair of the Federal Reserve, the first woman to lead America’s central banking system since its creation. Among the most accomplished and decorated economists in modern history, if confirmed, she will become the first woman to lead the Treasury Department in its 231 years of existence, and the first person to ever serve as Treasury Secretary, Chair of the Federal Reserve, and Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Prior to her leadership of the Federal Reserve, Yellen served as the body’s Vice Chair from 2010 to 2014 following an earlier term on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She served as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton, has held a litany of high-profile leadership roles with national and international economics organizations, and has forged a prolific career as a professor of economics, including as a faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley for the last 40 years. Born and raised in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Yellen received her bachelor of arts degree from Brown University and her Ph.D. in economics from Yale University. link

Director of the Office of Management and Budget: Neera Tanden Career has focused on pursuing policies designed to support working families, foster broad- based economic growth, and curb rampant inequality Relied on food stamps and Section 8 housing as a child — a social safety net that offered her single mother the foundation she needed to land a good job and punch her family’s ticket to the middle class

Would be the first woman of color and first South Asian American to lead the OMB Neera Tanden currently serves as President & CEO of the Center for American Progress, an organization dedicated to advancing policies that increase opportunity for every American. A veteran of multiple presidential administrations, Tanden has been a leading architect and advocate of policies designed to support working families, foster broad-based economic growth, and curb inequality throughout her career. Her experience as a child relying on food stamps and Section 8 housing — a social safety net that offered her single mother the foundation she needed to land a good job and punch her family’s ticket to the middle class — instilled in her the true necessity of an economy that serves the dignity and humanity of all people. If confirmed, Tanden would be the first woman of color and the first South Asian American to lead the OMB. Prior to her tenure as President & CEO, Tanden held the post of Chief Operating Officer at the Center for American Progress. She currently serves on the New Jersey Restart and Recovery Commission, and previously served as senior adviser for health reform at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services developing policies and provisions of the Affordable Care Act, as director of domestic policy for the first Obama-Biden presidential campaign, and in a variety of other roles in government and on the campaign trail. A native of Bedford, Massachusetts, Tanden received her bachelor of science degree from UCLA and her JD from Yale Law School. link

Shalanda Young, Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget *NEW*

Shalanda Young, a native of Baton Rouge, La., serves as Staff Director and Clerk for the House Appropriations Committee.

As Staff Director, she has overseen $1.4 trillion in annual federal funding for programs ranging from children and families, to infrastructure, to defense, diplomacy and development. In addition, Young has played a key role in shaping coronavirus relief legislation and other emergency bills responding to natural disasters.

Prior to becoming Staff Director, Youngheld various positions with the Committee for more than 14 years. Young moved to D.C. nearly two decades ago to serve as a Presidential Management Fellow at the National Institute of Health. She holds a Master’s Degree from Tulane University and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Loyola University New Orleans.

Jason Miller, Deputy Director for Management, Office of Management and Budget *New*

Jason Miller is an accomplished leader in the public, non-profit, and private sectors who served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council in the Obama-Biden White House. During his seven years in the Administration, Miller led a wide range of initiatives to create American jobs. He was the White House lead for manufacturing policy, created the Manufacturing USA program and its 16 successful institutes, and shaped the development of historic fuel efficiency standards through 2025. Miller led the White House’s efforts for Puerto Rico, culminating in bipartisan legislation to stem the economic and fiscal crisis. He also spearheaded surface and aviation transportation and infrastructure policy initiatives.

Miller currently leads the USTR Agency Review Team for the Biden-Harris Transition, helping to prepare USTR for day one. Previously, Miller served as the CEO of the Greater Washington Partnership beginning in 2017, where he focused on issues of regional inclusive economic growth and prosperity, including building and operating a more reliable and accessible transportation system, driving an improved digital skills workforce, and improving housing affordability.

Miller earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a M.P.A. from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Deputy Secretary of Treasury: Wally Adeyemo Served the in the Obama-Biden administration as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council and Deputy National Security Advisor First Chief of Staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and current president of the Obama Foundation Wally Adeyemo currently serves as the president of the Obama Foundation, the non-profit organization founded by former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama to continue their work in service to their community, our nation, and the world. A leader with deep experience across both the economic and national security space, Adeyemo has served as a trusted adviser to the country’s foremost policymakers in times of crisis. During the Obama-Biden Administration, Adeyemo served as the President’s senior international economic adviser and held a broad range of posts, including Deputy National

Security Advisor, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, the first chief of staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and senior advisor and deputy chief of staff at the Department of the Treasury. Before and after his service in the Obama-Biden Administration, he has advised a range of leading non-profit and private sector organizations, including the Center for Strategic & International Studies. Born in Nigeria and raised in southern California’s Inland Empire, Adeyemo received his bachelor of arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley and his JD from Yale Law School. If confirmed, Adeyemo would be the first African American Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. link

Secretary of Commerce Governor Gina Raimondo

The first woman elected as governor of Rhode Island — known as an innovative and effective leader who brought her state back from a time when they faced the worst unemployment rate of any state in the nation Launched statewide workforce training programs to prepare her constituents for the 21st century economy Created a small business loan program that has empowered Rhode Island entrepreneurs — more than half women or people of color — to get new businesses up and running Gina Raimondo is currently serving her second term as the 75th Governor of Rhode Island. The first woman to lead in this role, she has revitalized the state’s economy through innovative investments in economic development, job training, and infrastructure, while spurring the creation and growth of small- and medium-sized businesses across Rhode Island. A believer in the power of education, Governor Raimondo more than quadrupled the number of public Pre-K classrooms, ensured every school had a computer science curriculum, and made Rhode Island the nation’s fourth state to provide free community college opportunities to every high school graduate. Under her governance, Rhode Island has provided its population with the most tests per capita in the United States and she has worked to quickly bring the state economy back from the brink.

Prior to her tenure as Governor, Raimondo helped found the first venture capital firm in Rhode Island, Point Judith Capital, and served for four years as the state’s General Treasurer. A Rhode Island native, Governor Raimondo received her bachelor of arts degree from Harvard University, her master of arts and doctor of philosophy degrees as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, and her JD from Yale Law School.

Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves

Trusted advisor to President-elect Biden, and spent years advising him on jobs and the economy during the Obama-Biden Administration

Served as Executive Director of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Small Business, Community Development and Housing Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury during the Obama-Biden Administration Was the Obama-Biden Administration’s point person on the city of Detroit, where he worked with municipal, state, business, non-profit, and community stakeholders as the city worked through its bankruptcy and began its recovery Don Graves is a long-time trusted advisor to President-elect Joe Biden who has served as Deputy Assistant to President Barack Obama and Counselor to then-Vice President Biden, Executive Director of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Small Business, Community Development and Housing Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

During the Obama-Biden Administration, he oversaw the multi-billion-dollar Small Business Lending Fund and State Small Business Credit Initiative, as well as the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund — and led the federal effort to revitalize Detroit in the wake of its bankruptcy, working with city, state, business, non-profit and community stakeholders to bring the city back from the brink. In 2016, he was tasked by then-Vice President Biden to oversee his signature Cancer Moonshot Effort. He is a deeply experienced, tested public servant who has focused on creating jobs, opportunity, and prosperity for all Americans, especially in underserved communities.

Graves currently leads the Biden-Harris Transition’s Treasury Agency Review Team to ensure the Department of Treasury is ready to hit the ground running on day one. Prior to his role on the Biden-Harris transition, Graves was Head of Corporate Responsibility & Community Relations at KeyBank, leading the bank’s sustainability work. He received his B.A. degree in political science and history from Williams College and Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Secretary of Labor Mayor Marty Walsh While Mayor of Boston, he has fought for a $15 minimum wage and paid family leave As a champion for workers, he has the relationships and deep experience necessary to usher in a new era of worker power Joined the Laborers’ Union Local 223 at age 21, later becoming president of the union. Led the Boston Metropolitan District Building Trades Council Marty Walsh is currently serving his second term as the Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts. For the past 7 years, he has worked tirelessly to rebuild the middle class, build a more inclusive, resilient economy, and fight for workers in his hometown — including fighting for a $15 minimum wage and paid family leave. Mayor Walsh is credited with setting records for new affordable housing in the city, putting a roof over the heads of hundreds of homeless people and ending chronic veterans’ homelessness, providing universal pre-k, and bringing free community college to low-income students in the city. During his tenure as Mayor, 100,000 new jobs were created.

Prior to his service as Mayor, Walsh served as a legislator for the 13th Suffolk District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Co-Chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party Labor Caucus, and Co-Chair for the Special Commission on Public Construction Reform. He was also president of the Laborers’ Union Local 223, joining the union at age 21. He was elected secretary-treasurer and general agent of the Boston Metropolitan District Building Trades Council, and ultimately named to lead the union in 2011.

Mayor Walsh received his bachelor’s degree from the Woods College of Advancing Studies at Boston College.

Small Business Administrator Isabel Guzman Director of California’s Office of the Small Business Advocate Currently helping to coordinate California’s economic recovery plan amid the COVID-19 crisis Served as senior advisor and deputy chief of staff of the SBA during the Obama-Biden Administration Isabel Guzman currently serves as the Director of the Office of the Small Business Advocate within the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz). A lifelong proponent of small businesses, Guzman grew up as the daughter of a small business owner and served within the Obama-Biden Administration as Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor in the U.S. Small Business Administration. In her current role, Guzman helps connect entrepreneurs in every community with the resources and capital needed for success, and supports small businesses to weather the COVID-19 pandemic. She serves as the voice of small businesses and innovative startups to help them access capital, markets and networks. In addition to overseeing a network of small business centers, Guzman’s office has launched the Shop Safe Shop Local initiative aimed at helping small businesses reopen safely, and its Get Digital CA initiative to help businesses adopt technology to safely and successfully operate in the pandemic.

Prior to her career in public service, Guzman was a small business entrepreneur herself, an advisor to fellow founders, and an advisor at ProAmérica Bank, the first California- chartered Latino-formed business bank to form in Los Angeles in over 35 years.. She earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.

Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers: Cecilia Rouse

Former member of the Obama-Biden Council of Economic Advisers, and dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs If confirmed, she will become the first African American woman to lead the Council of Economic Advisers in the 74 years of its existence Cecilia Rouse currently serves as Dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. If confirmed, she will become just the first African American and just the fourth woman to lead the CEA in the 74 years of its existence. A renowned labor economist with

expertise centered in the economics of education and equality, she is an accomplished leader who has held prominent roles across academia and government service. Before taking on her current role as Dean in 2012, Rouse served as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama-Biden Administration and on the National Economic Council in the Clinton Administration as Special Assistant to President Clinton. Rouse joined the Princeton faculty in 1992 and has authored landmark papers on a variety of economic policy issues. Originally from California, Rouse received her bachelor of arts degree and her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. link

Member of the Council of Economic Advisers: Jared Bernstein Served as Vice-President Biden’s Chief Economist during in the first years of the Obama-Biden Administration Former social worker, with a distinguished career in economics, putting working people at the center of his work and advocacy

Jared Bernstein served as chief economist to then-Vice President Biden in the Obama-Biden Administration before joining the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where he has served as a senior fellow since 2011. A former social worker, Bernstein has a long and distinguished track record devising economic policies that expand opportunity for working Americans.

Bernstein has previously served as Executive Director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class and as an economic advisor to President Obama; prior to his service in the Obama-Biden Administration, he was a senior economist and director of the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute, and served as Deputy Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor under President Clinton. In addition to authoring numerous books, Bernstein has been a regular commentator on economic issues for leading national print and television outlets, including The Washington Post and CNBC. Bernstein received his bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, his master of social work degree from Hunter College, and his Ph.D. in social welfare from Columbia University. link

Member of the Council of Economic Advisers Heather Boushey Core of her work as an economist centers on the intersection between economic inequality, growth, and public policy Raised in a union family, and believes our economy is strongest when it offers dignity and respect to all workers and families

Heather Boushey is a long-time economic counselor to President-elect Biden and currently serves as President & CEO of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a non-profit research and grantmaking organization she co-founded in 2013. An expert on the impact of structural inequities on economic growth, she is a leading voice on matters of economic policy.

Boushey served as chief economist for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential transition team, and previously served as an economist for the Center for American Progress, the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and the Economic Policy Institute. She currently sits on the board of the Opportunity Institute, is a senior fellow at the Schwartz Center for Economic and Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research, and serves as an Associate Editor for Feminist Economics. Born and raised in the Seattle area, Boushey received her bachelor of arts degree from Hampshire College and her Ph.D. in economics from the New School for Social Research. link

Director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese

Played a key role in engineering the rescue of the U.S. auto industry and in negotiating the landmark Paris Climate Agreement during the Obama-Biden Administration

Former Senior Advisor to President Obama, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council and Deputy Director and Acting Director of OMB during the Obama-Biden Administration

Brian Deese will serve as Director of the National Economic Council, advising President- elect Biden on domestic and international economic policy and coordinating the economic agenda of the Biden-Harris Administration. A former Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama who was instrumental both in engineering the rescue of the U.S. auto industry and in negotiating the landmark Paris Climate Agreement, Deese is a crisis-tested advisor with broad experience in accelerating economic prosperity, empowering working Americans, and harnessing the economic opportunities that come from building a clean energy economy and combating the climate crisis.

Deese has held a variety of key roles helping national leaders navigate some of the biggest challenges of this generation. During the Obama-Biden Administration, he served as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy after the 2008 financial crisis, as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, and as Deputy Director and Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget. In his role as Global Head of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock, Deese has worked to drive greater focus on climate and sustainability risk in investment portfolios and create investment strategies to help accelerate the low-carbon transition. Deese received his bachelor of arts from Middlebury College, and his JD from Yale Law School. link

HEALTH

Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra

Helped pass the Affordable Care Act as a Congressman Led the defense of the Affordable Care Act in the Supreme Court as California Attorney General If confirmed, would be the first Latino to lead the Department of Health and Human Services

Xavier Becerra currently serves as the 33rd Attorney General of California, the first Latino to hold the position in the 171 years of its existence. As the leader of the nation’s largest state-level Department of Justice, his work has focused on protecting underserved communities and fighting to safeguard the health and wellbeing of all Californians; in November 2020, he led the defense of the Affordable Care Act in the Supreme Court on behalf of twenty states and the District of Columbia.

Prior to his tenure as Attorney General, Becerra served twelve terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming a key fixture of the Committee on Ways and Means, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Social Security, and, ultimately, Chair of the House Democratic Caucus. The son of working-class parents who was the first member of his family to graduate from college, Becerra started his career as a legal aid attorney supporting clients contending with mental health issues before becoming a Deputy Attorney General in the California Department of Justice and serving one term in the State Assembly. Originally from Sacramento, Becerra received his bachelor of arts degree from Stanford and his JD from Stanford Law School. link

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy

Served as Surgeon General in the Obama-Biden Administration, making him uniquely qualified to lead as America’s Doctor Held the rank of Vice Admiral of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps Co-Chair of President-elect Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board

Dr. Vivek Murthy was confirmed by the Senate in 2014 to serve as the 19th Surgeon General of the United States, and currently serves as co-chair of the President-elect’s COVID-19 Advisory Board. A decorated physician, research scientist, and former Vice Admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, Dr. Murthy is among the most trusted voices in America on matters of public health. As ‘America’s Doctor,’ Dr. Murthy helped lead the national response to a range of health challenges, including the Ebola and Zika viruses, the opioid crisis, and the negative effects of stress and loneliness on Americans’ physical and mental wellbeing. Prior to his tenure as Surgeon General, Dr. Murthy co-founded VISIONS, a global HIV/AIDS education organization; the Swasthya Project, an India-based community health partnership that

84 trained women in rural communities to become local leaders in health care and health education; TrialNetworks, a technology company dedicated to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of scientific research collaboration; and Doctors for America, a nonprofit mobilizing physicians and medical students to improve access to affordable care. Born in England and raised in Miami, Dr. Murthy received his bachelor of arts degree from Harvard, his masters in business administration from the Yale School of Management, and his MD from the Yale School of Medicine. link

Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Rochelle Walensky

Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School Conducted influential research on HIV/AIDS, making her one of the nation’s leading experts on virus testing, prevention, and treatment Has served on the frontline of the pandemic in Massachusetts, and conducted research on vaccine delivery and strategies to reach underserved communities

Dr. Rochelle Walensky currently serves as Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. An influential scholar whose pioneering research has helped advance the national and global response to HIV/AIDS, Dr. Walensky is one of America’s most respected experts on the value of testing and treatment of deadly viruses.

A practicing infectious diseases physician, Dr. Walensky has been recognized internationally for her work to improve HIV screening and care in South Africa. She is a past Chair of Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council at the National Institutes of Health, Chair-elect of the HIV Medical Association, and has previously served as an advisor to both the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

Originally from Maryland, Dr. Walensky received her bachelor of arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis, her MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and her masters in public health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. link

COVID-19 Equity Task Force Chair Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith Founding director of Yale’s Equity Research and Innovation Center, focused on addressing inequities in our health care system Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the Yale School of Medicine Among America’s foremost experts on health disparities and outcomes Co-Chair of President-elect Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith currently serves as Associate Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Management and Associate Dean for Health Equity Research at the Yale School

85 of Medicine. A co-chair of the President-elect’s COVID-19 Advisory Board, she is one of America’s most distinguished and influential experts on persistent inequities in health care and health outcomes.

Dr. Nunez-Smith is the founding director of Yale’s Equity Research and Innovation Center, a groundbreaking academic and policy organization created to address inequities in health and health care. She serves as a principal investigator on several leading research projects intended to assess and rectify systemic discrimination and racial disparities in the health care space, and created the NIH-funded Eastern Caribbean Health Outcomes Research Network to improve health outcomes in an historically underserved region. Originally from Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Dr. Nunez-Smith received her bachelor of arts degree from Swarthmore College, her MD from Jefferson Medical College, and her master of health science from Yale University. link

Chief Medical Adviser on COVID-19 to the President Dr. Anthony Fauci America’s preeminent expert on infectious diseases and an adviser to six U.S. presidents Will remain an essential voice in informing the public about health risks and safety measures Fauci will help the scientific community, the Biden-Harris administration, and local officials overcome the COVID-19 pandemic

Dr. Anthony Fauci is one of America’s most trusted and accomplished scientific voices, a world-renowned infectious disease expert who has served as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. A prominent adviser to the last six U.S. presidents on a broad range of health and medical issues, Dr. Fauci has played a critical role in shaping and implementing the national and global response to every major public health threat that has emerged over the last four decades.

In his current role, Dr. Fauci leads an expansive research portfolio covering the prevention, tracking, and treatment of both established and emerging contagions, as well as asthma, allergies, and other immune-related illnesses. He serves simultaneously as Chief of the Laboratory of Immunoregulation and Chief of the Immunopathogenesis Section at the National Institutes of Health, having largely pioneered the field of human immune response regulation with his early research. As a prominent scientific adviser throughout the HIV/AIDS crisis, he also helped lead the creation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has been credited with saving the lives of millions across the globe. In addition to a litany of awards and the 45 honorary degrees he has received from universities worldwide, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2008. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Dr. Fauci received his bachelor of arts degree from the College of the Holy Cross, and his MD from Cornell University. link

Coordinator of the COVID-19 Response and Counselor to the President Jeff Zients Served as the Director of the National Economic Council, Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and the inaugural Chief Performance Officer of the United States Successfully led complex national initiatives through early challenges, including the 2013 HealthCare.gov tech surge and ‘Cash for Clunkers’ fuel efficiency program

Jeff Zients is a renowned crisis manager and public servant who has earned widespread acclaim for his ability to successfully navigate large, complex initiatives through formidable challenges. Among a litany of notable accomplishments, he is credited with having led both the 2013 tech surge to revitalize HealthCare.gov as well as the 2009 ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program to help revive the U.S. auto industry while improving fuel efficiency.

During his time in the Obama-Biden administration, Zients served as Director of the National Economic Council, Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and the inaugural Chief Performance Officer of the United States. He currently serves as co-chair of the Biden-Harris Transition. Previously, he was CEO of the holding company Cranemere, following decades of private sector experience as an executive, entrepreneur, and management consultant across a wide range of industries, including as CEO and Chairman of The Advisory Board Company. Born and raised in the Washington, DC area, Zients received his bachelor of science degree from Duke University. link

Deputy Coordinator of the COVID-19 Response Natalie Quillian Served as Advisor to the White House Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the Deputy National Security Advisor during the Obama-Biden Administration Played an instrumental role in coordinating the Obama-Biden administration’s interagency response to the opioid epidemic

Natalie Quillian is a national security expert and former White House and Pentagon senior advisor who most recently served as Deputy Campaign Manager for Biden for President, where she helped lead campaign operations, election security matters, and other management functions — including leading the campaign’s approach to COVID-19 safety for the candidates, campaign staff, and thousands of volunteers. Quillian began her government career as a civil servant during the George W. Bush administration, and went on to serve all eight years in the Obama-Biden administration, where she played an instrumental role coordinating the interagency response to the opioid epidemic. She has served in a number of national security positions at the National Security Council and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the White House Chief of Staff, working on complex interagency and crisis response matters. link

COVID Senior Policy Advisor Sonya Bernstein Sonya Bernstein is an advisor for COVID-19 on the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to joining the transition, she served as Assistant Vice President at NYC Health + Hospitals, the nation’s largest municipal public health care system. Bernstein served as Assistant Secretary for Health & Economic Policy for the State of New York. Prior to that, she served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Special Advisor to Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Born in New York, Bernstein is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Vaccinations Coordinator Bechara Choucair

Bechara Choucair, MD, currently serves as senior vice president and chief health officer for Kaiser Permanente, America’s largest, private, integrated health system with over 12 million members across the U.S. He was Chicago’s public health commissioner from 2009 to 2014. Dr. Choucair has held executive leadership positions focused on serving under- resourced communities and increasing healthcare access at several health systems, including Trinity Health, Heartland Health Centers, and Crusader Community Health. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Dr. Choucair is a family physician by training, with an MD from the American University of Beirut. He immigrated to the United States in 1997 and completed his family medicine residency training at Baylor College of Medicine. He has a master’s degree in healthcare management from the University of Texas at Dallas.

COVID Intergovernmental Affairs Director Eduardo Cisneros

Eduardo Cisneros currently serves as Director of Civic Engagement, Government Relations at AltaMed Health Services, one of the nation’s largest Federally Qualified Health Centers on the frontline responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to joining AltaMed, Cisneros worked for the NALEO Education Fund. Before that, he worked at SEIU Healthcare in Washington, DC. In 2016, Cisneros served as Regional Political Director for Secretary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Cisneros also served in the Obama-Biden administration as a Special Assistant to the Secretary and Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor. Previously, Cisneros worked at the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest school district. Originally from California, Cisneros is a graduate of California State University-Long Beach as well as the University of Chicago. He is relocating to Washington, DC with his wife and son.

COVID Digital Director Clarke Humphrey

Clarke Humphrey served as Deputy Digital Director on the Biden-Harris Campaign

88 overseeing the grassroots fundraising operation. Prior to joining the campaign, Humphrey oversaw the email, SMS, and digital ads programs at the DNC as the Online Fundraising Director. Humphrey has also spent some time at a digital ads firm and worked as the North Carolina Digital Director on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016. Originally from Massachusetts, Humphrey graduated from Northwestern University, where she studied journalism.

Testing Coordinator Carole Johnson

Carole Johnson is the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Human Services, which provides health care and social services to about one-in-five New Jerseyans. Johnson previously served as the Domestic Policy Council public health lead in the Obama-Biden White House, including during the Ebola and Zika responses. Johnson also worked on Capitol Hill for members of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees. She managed health care workforce policy issues at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and was policy director for the Alliance of Community Health Plans, program officer with the Pew Charitable Trusts health program, and senior government relations manager with the American Heart Association. Originally from New Jersey, Johnson holds a Master’s degree from the University of Virginia.

Supply Coordinator Tim Manning

Tim Manning is the former Deputy Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for Protection and National Preparedness, serving the entirety of the Obama-Biden Administration. Since leaving the federal government in 2017, he has been an advisor and executive with the Pacific Disaster Center, a global applied research center managed by the University of Hawaii, and has served on the faculty of the Disaster and Emergency Management studies program at Georgetown University. Manning has spent his entire career focused on managing crises, previously serving as the Secretary of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for the State of New Mexico, as a firefighter-EMT, rescue mountaineer, and geologist. Raised just outside Chicago, Manning is a graduate of Eastern Illinois University and the University of St. Andrews.

COVID Policy Advisor Osaremen Okolo

Osaremen Okolo serves on the Biden-Harris Transition domestic policy team. Prior to joining the transition, Okolo served as Senior Health Policy Advisor to U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky of Illinois. Okolo drafted, negotiated, and managed the Congresswoman’s legislation, oversight, and policy across a comprehensive health care and public health

89 agenda, most recently focusing almost exclusively on the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, Okolo served as Legislative Aide for Health Policy on the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) for Ranking Member Patty Murray of Washington. A daughter of Nigerian immigrants, Okolo was born and raised in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard College.

Director of Strategic Communications and Engagement Courtney Rowe

Courtney Rowe served for six years in the Obama-Biden Administration including as the Special Assistant to the President for Message Planning, White House Associate Communications Director, and Communications Director for the White House Domestic Policy Council. In these roles, she helped lead strategic communications for a number of President Obama’s top policy priorities and crisis communications efforts. Prior to her time in the White House, Rowe served as Deputy Communications Director and Chief Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Rowe worked for five years on Capitol Hill as Associate Director of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee and Communications Director for the Senate Agriculture Committee. Since leaving the federal government in 2017, Rowe has served as the Vice President of Corporate Communications for National Geographic Partners. Originally from Arkansas, Rowe is a graduate of Arkansas State University. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and son.

COVID Data Director Cyrus Shahpar

Cyrus Shahpar, MD, serves on the Biden-Harris Transition Agency Review Team for the Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to this role, Dr. Shahpar served as Vice President for Epidemic Intelligence at the Resolve to Save Lives initiative of Vital Strategies. This included serving as the Chief Science Officer in the COVID-19 response. Previously, Dr. Shahpar served as Team Lead of the Global Rapid Response Team at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At CDC, he graduated from the Epidemic Intelligence Service and served as a uniformed officer in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. He also served as an attending emergency physician at Emory University. Originally from California, Dr. Shahpar is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University. He lives in Alameda, CA with his wife and two sons.

Amy Chang, Policy Advisor *New*

Amy Chang joins from the COVID-19 team of the Biden-Harris Transition. She previously worked in the Obama-Biden administration, as a Special Assistant in the Office of the

Secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She has also served multiple federal health agencies in her time as a consultant at Deloitte Federal Consulting and Boston Consulting Group. Originally from South Carolina, Amy is a graduate of Yale University.

Abbe Gluck, Special Counsel *New*

Abbe R. Gluck is the Alfred M. Rankin Professor of Law and Founding Faculty Director of the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, and Professor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine. Most recently, she has been assisting the COVID team on the Biden-Harris Transition. She previously served as Senior Advisor to the New Jersey Attorney General, Chief of Staff and Counsel to the New York City Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, Senior Counsel to the New York City Corporation Counsel, Deputy Special Counsel to the New York City Charter Revision Commission, and Special Assistant to U.S. Senator Paul S. Sarbanes. Earlier in her career, Gluck practiced law at the Paul Weiss firm and served as a law clerk to Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court of the United States, and to then-Chief Judge Ralph K. Winter on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Born in New York City, Gluck is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School.

David Kessler, Chief Science Officer of COVID Response *New*

David A. Kessler, M.D., who serves as a co-chair of the COVID-19 Task Force for President- elect Joe Biden, was the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration from 1990 to 1997, under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Dr. Kessler has served as chair of the boards of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF). At EGPAF, Dr. Kessler helped spearhead a major global effort to make drugs available to millions to end the transmission of mother-to-child HIV- AIDS. A professor of pediatrics and epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Kessler has also served as the dean of the medical schools at Yale and UCSF. Dr. Kessler is a graduate of Amherst College, the University of Chicago Law School, and Harvard Medical School. He was awarded the Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences in 2001. Dr. Kessler, a member of the National Academy of Medicine, is the author of a number of books addressing the pressing public health issues of our time.

Rosa Po, COVID Response Team Deputy Chief of Staff *New*

Rosa Po serves as an Advisor to Domestic / Economic Agency Review on the Biden-Harris Transition and served on the Platform Team on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Previously, she served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Counsel to Senator Amy Klobuchar in the U.S. Senate and as Senator Klobuchar’s Policy Director and Senior Advisor during her presidential campaign. During the Obama-Biden administration, Po served as a Policy

Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She also served as Legislative Research Director for Senator Barbara Boxer in the U.S. Senate, as Regional Policy Director for Secretary Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, and as a Senior Researcher on her 2008 campaign. Originally from Oregon, Po holds bachelors and masters degrees from Yale University and is a graduate of Yale Law School.

Andy Slavitt, Senior Advisor to the COVID Response Coordinator *New*

Andy Slavitt served as the Acting Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services under President Obama, overseeing the Medicaid, Medicare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, value-based payment reform and the Health Insurance Marketplace. Prior to that, Slavitt helped lead the successful turnaround of healthcare.gov. Slavitt had been Board Chair of United States of Care, a national non-profit health think-tank and advocacy organization he founded to achieve full, sustainable access to health care for all American families. Slavitt co-chaired The Future of Healthcare initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center and chaired the Medicaid Transformation Project which aims to transform care for the most vulnerable. He is also the founder and General Partner of Town Hall Ventures, which invests in health care innovations in vulnerable communities. Slavitt is host of “In The Bubble,” an award-winning podcast providing Americans critical information and help during this global pandemic. He is also author of the book Preventable, a definitive, behind-the-scenes look at the U.S. Coronavirus crisis and the US response.

Vidur Sharma, Policy Advisor for Testing *New*

Vidur Sharma served in the Obama-Biden White House as a health policy advisor on the Domestic Policy Council. In this role, Sharma supported the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, aligned Federal Department and Agencies, and collaborated with community stakeholders to further the administration’s health policy agenda. Sharma also served as Deputy Research Director with Protect Our Care, a coalition of advocacy organizations dedicated to preventing the repeal of the ACA. Since then, Sharma has advised health sector organizations on value-based care arrangements at PwC Strategy. Born in Wisconsin and raised in Minnesota, and the son of Indian immigrants, Sharma is a graduate of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Saint Louis University. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife.

Ben Wakana, Deputy Director of Strategic Communications & Engagement *New*

Ben Wakana serves as the COVID and Health Care Outreach lead on the Biden-Harris

Transition. Prior to joining the transition, he was the Executive Director of Patients For Affordable Drugs, a nationwide non-profit focused on lowering prescription drug prices. Before joining Patients For Affordable Drugs, Wakana served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services where he helped manage communications efforts around the Affordable Care Act, Ebola, and Zika. He also spent time as a Communications Director on Capitol Hill. Wakana grew up in Maine and graduated from Colby College. He lives with his wife and two kids in Washington, D.C.

B. Cameron Webb, Senior Policy Advisor for COVID-19 Equity *New*

Dr. B. Cameron Webb currently serves as Assistant Professor of Medicine and Public Health Sciences, and as Director of Health Policy and Equity at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. A general internist, Dr. Webb has worked clinically in the University’s COVID unit since the beginning of the pandemic. Additionally, he is the founding director of UVA’s Health Equity, Law and Policy Research (HELPR) Laboratory and is a core faculty member at the University’s Equity Center, an initiative for the redress of inequity through community-engaged scholarship. Prior to joining the faculty at UVA, Dr. Webb spent a year as a 2016 White House Fellow in the Obama-Biden Administration’s Office of Cabinet Affairs, where he served on the My Brother’s Keeper task force and the White House Healthcare team. Dr. Webb received his B.A. from the University of Virginia, his M.D. from Wake Forest School of Medicine, and his J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

DOMESTIC POLICY

Secretary of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack

Was confirmed by unanimous consent in the Senate as in 2009 to serve as Secretary of Agriculture Oversaw record-breaking investments in rural communities, secured vital improvements to the nation’s school meal system, and led a successful campaign to increase food safety standards during the Obama-Biden Administration

Tom Vilsack is a former two-term governor of Iowa who served as Secretary of Agriculture for all eight years of the Obama-Biden Administration. Unanimously confirmed by the Senate to lead the USDA in 2009, he oversaw record-breaking investments in rural communities, secured vital improvements to the nation’s school meal system, and led a successful campaign to increase food safety standards during his tenure. Vilsack also served as Chair of the first-ever White House Rural Council, where he helped drive critical financing opportunities to rural businesses and entrepreneurs.

As the 40th Governor of Iowa, Vilsack led the charge on major infrastructure investments, implementing a successful program that spurred the creation of popular projects across the state. He worked across party lines to help create the Grow Iowa Values Fund, an initiative to invest in the state’s entrepreneurs and spark economic development.

Prior to his tenure as Governor, Vilsack served as Mayor of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and in the Iowa State Senate. Originally from Pittsburgh, he received his bachelor of arts degree from Hamilton College and his JD from Albany Law School. link

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Congresswoman Marcia Fudge

Driving mission of her career has been to reduce poverty and address inequality Will be the first woman to lead HUD in more than 40 years and the second Black woman to lead the Department Longtime champion of affordable housing, urban revitalization, infrastructure investment, and other reforms to enhance the safety, prosperity, and sustainability of American communities

Congresswoman Marcia Fudge has represented the 11th Congressional District of Ohio since 2008. As a fierce advocate for solutions to our nation’s most pressing issues, Congresswoman Fudge currently serves on the Committee on House Administration, House Committee on Agriculture, and House Committee on Education and Labor. She is the Chair of the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Elections and Chair of the

Committee on Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight and Department Operations. A member of several congressional caucuses, she is also a past Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Congresswoman Fudge has served the people of Ohio for more than three decades, beginning with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office. She was later elected as the first African American and first female mayor of Warrensville Heights, Ohio. Congresswoman Fudge earned her bachelor’s degree in business from The Ohio State University and her JD from the Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall School of Law. She is a Past National President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and a member of its Greater Cleveland Alumnae Chapter. link

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough

White House Chief of Staff, Deputy National Security Advisor, and Chief of Staff of the National Security Council during the Obama-Biden Administration While on the National Security Council, McDonough made a point of going into the field regularly to meet directly with service members in Afghanistan and Iraq

From February 2013 to January 2017, Denis McDonough served as White House Chief of Staff for President Barack Obama. In that role, he managed the White House staff, and worked across the Cabinet, to advance the Obama-Biden agenda, confronted management issues facing the federal government, and devised and enforced plans, performance and goals, maintaining the Obama-Biden Administration’s reputation for effective, ethical operation.

Prior to his role as Chief of Staff, from September 2010 until February 2013, McDonough was Principal Deputy National Security Advisor. He chaired the National Security Council’s Deputies Committee, leading a multiagency team to address complex national security challenges, including crisis management and national security policy making. Prior to his eight-year tenure in the White House, McDonough served in senior leadership and policy- making positions in the U.S. House of Representatives, as Professional Staff Member on the International Relations Committee, and in the U.S. Senate, for the Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and for Senator Ken Salazar (CO).

McDonough grew up in Minnesota in a family of 11 children, went to college at St. John’s University (MN) and to graduate school at Georgetown University. link

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg

As Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, he secured $200 million in private investment in downtown South Bend, sparking citywide job growth and facilitating innovative public-private partnerships to improve the city’s transportation Launched a “Smart Streets” initiative that brought new life to what was once called a dying city — revitalizing the city, redesigning the streets, and spurring major economic investment Would make history as the first openly gay person confirmed to lead a Cabinet department in our nation’s history

Pete Buttigieg served as the 32nd Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, for eight years. With bold thinking and innovative leadership, Buttigieg revitalized a city that had been struggling for decades after the Studebaker auto company collapsed and was once called one of America’s “dying cities.” He brought South Bend back from the brink, creating thousands of jobs and spurring local investment during his tenure. His “Smart Streets” initiative helped change the fortunes of downtown South Bend — revitalizing the city, redesigning the streets, and bringing in major economic investment.

Buttgieg was a top contender for the 2020 Democratic nomination, the first major openly gay presidential candidate to win a state caucus or primary in American history, and one of the youngest candidates ever to do so. His candidacy brought a relentless focus on reimagining the future of our economy — calling every community to common purpose around creating good jobs and resilient infrastructure for all Americans.

In addition to his service as mayor, Buttigieg was an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve who was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014, eventually earning the rank of Lieutenant. A native of South Bend, Buttigieg graduated from Harvard University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. link

United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai

Served as chief lawyer on trade for the House Ways and Means Committee Has deep experience in trade policy, including service in the Office of the United States Trade Representative, and serving as Chief Counsel for China Trade Enforcement Would be the first Asian American and first woman of color to serve as U.S. Trade Representative

Katherine Tai is a dedicated, deeply respected public servant and veteran international trade expert who has spent her career working to level the playing field for American workers and families. Currently, Tai serves as the chief lawyer on trade to the Chairman and Democratic Members of the Committee on Ways and Means on matters of international trade as Chief Trade Counsel. In this role, she has secured key victories for workers in U.S. trade policy and has been praised by lawmakers and lawyers for her work. Prior to the

Committee, Tai served in the USTR’s Office of the General Counsel, first as Associate General Counsel from 2007 to 2011 and then as Chief Counsel for China Trade Enforcement with responsibility for the development and litigation of U.S. disputes against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Before joining USTR, Tai worked in the international trade departments in various Washington, D.C. law firms. From 1996 to 1998, she lived and worked in Guangzhou, China teaching English at Sun Yat-Sen University as a Yale-China Fellow. Tai was born in Connecticut — the first American-born citizen in her family — and raised in the Washington, D.C. area. She is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School. link

Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel Cardona A former fourth-grade public school teacher who became the youngest principal in the state and, later, an assistant superintendent of schools in his hometown of Meriden, Connecticut

As Connecticut education commissioner, his leadership helped make Connecticut the first state in the nation to ensure that every one of its public-school students has a laptop and a high-speed internet connection to engage in remote learning

Dr. Miguel A. Cardona currently serves as Connecticut’s Commissioner of Education — the first Latino to hold the position. He began his career educating and inspiring Connecticut’s youth as a fourth-grade teacher in Meriden’s public-school system, the same school district he attended as a child. Dr. Cardona became the youngest school principal in the state at age 27, serving in the position for 10 years before taking on a role addressing the district’s performance and evaluation process and ultimately rising to the position of assistant superintendent.

In addition to teaching as an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut in the Department of Educational Leadership, Dr. Cardona served as the Co-Chairperson on the Connecticut Legislative Achievement Gap Task Force and the Connecticut Birth to Grade Three Leaders Council. Dr. Cardona earned his bachelor’s degree from Central Connecticut State University, and his masters in bilingual/bicultural education and his doctorate in education from the University of Connecticut. link

Deanne Criswell, FEMA Administrator

Deanne Criswell is an accomplished emergency management and disaster planning and response leader, with federal, city, military, and private sector experience. Appointed in 2019, Criswell currently serves as the Commissioner of the New York City Emergency Management Department, leading the coordination of NYC’s emergency response to the

COVID-19 pandemic and overseeing the City’s efforts to plan and prepare for emergencies, distributing emergency preparedness information to the public, and organizing emergency response and recovery.

Prior to joining NYC Emergency Management, Criswell worked at FEMA from 2011 to 2017 where she held the roles of Federal Coordinating Officer and National Incident Management Team Lead. In these roles, she served as the primary federal representative responsible for leading the agency’s response to and recover from emergencies and major disasters.

As a member of the Colorado Air National Guard, Criswell served 21 years as a firefighter and Deputy Fire Chief. In 2001, she deployed to Kuwait to serve as a fire officer, and in 2010, she deployed to Qatar, Afghanistan, and Iraq to advise on fire protection for military bases.

Criswell is a graduate of Colorado State University, Fort Collins with a bachelor’s degree in technology education and training and holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Colorado, Denver and a Master of Science in homeland security from the Naval Postgraduate School, Center for Homeland Defense and Security.

CLIMATE POLICY

Secretary of the Interior Congresswoman Deb Haaland

Has spent her career fighting for families, including in tribal nations, rural communities, and communities of color Vice Chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources Will make history as the first Native American Interior Secretary and the first-ever Native American Cabinet Secretary

Congresswoman Deb Haaland currently serves as the Representative for the First District of New Mexico in the House of Representatives — one of the first two Native American women elected to the United States Congress. As a single mom and someone who has lived paycheck to paycheck Haaland knows the struggles many families face. A longtime organizer, Haaland has spent her career advocating for the needs of her community. In Congress, she holds leadership positions including the 116th Congress Freshman Class Representative to the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, House Democratic Region VI Whip, and Deputy Whip for the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She is also the Vice Chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources and Vice Chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus.

Prior to her election to the U.S. House, Haaland was an entrepreneur and advocated for environmentally sustainable business practices. Additionally, Haaland served as Chairwoman of the New Mexico Democratic Party — the first Native American elected to lead a state party. Haaland, whose mother served in the Navy and whose father was a Marine, also serves as an Honorary Commander of Kirtland Air Force Base. She earned a B.A. from the University of New Mexico and a J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law. link

Secretary of Energy Fmr. Governor Jennifer Granholm

Worked with President-elect Biden on job-creating clean energy investments that helped recover and diversify Michigan’s economy in the great recession Worked with the Obama-Biden Administration to save one million auto jobs Envisions clean energy investments and deployments that create millions of good union jobs and support a stronger, more inclusive middle class

Jennifer Granholm served as Michigan’s 47th governor for two terms, and was the first woman to lead the state in its history. During her tenure, she oversaw the statewide response to the Great Recession, working closely with the Obama-Biden Administration to rescue the U.S. auto industry — a feat widely credited with saving one million American jobs. Granholm’s chief focus as governor was on retooling and electrifying the auto industry to prepare it for durable global leadership and in-state job growth; her efforts to diversify

99 the Michigan economy by sparking a new clean energy sector have served as a state and national model for future economic and job growth.

Prior to her tenure as Governor, Granholm was elected to serve as the Attorney General of Michigan, and was the first woman to hold this position. She is the founder of the American Jobs Project, a multi-state, multi-university initiative promoting technological advancements and clean energy policies to spur U.S. job creation, and has helped drive clean energy policy nationwide as an advisor to the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Clean Energy Program and as a professor at the University of California’s Goldman School of Public Policy. Granholm is affiliated with the California Institute for Energy and Environment and the Berkeley Center for Information Technology Research in the Interests of Society (CITRIS), where she is a Senior Research Fellow. An immigrant from Canada who has been a U.S. citizen for more than 40 years, Granholm received her bachelor of arts degree from University of California, Berkeley, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School. link

Environmental Protection Agency Michael Regan

Current Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality where he created an Environmental Justice and Equity Board Has served at the EPA under both Democratic and Republican presidents — leading initiatives to improve energy efficiency and air quality and mitigate pollution Former Associate Vice President of the Environmental Defense Fund

Michael Regan currently serves as Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. Bringing a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of the environment, economy, and public health, Secretary Regan conceptualized and operationalized North Carolina’s Executive Order 80 — a landmark effort to address climate change’s impact and transition the state’s energy economy. Regan led the negotiations that resulted in the cleanup of the Cape Fear River, which had been contaminated with dangerous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS), negotiated and oversaw the largest coal ash cleanup in the United States, and created North Carolina’s first Environmental Justice and Equity Advisory Board to address societal disparities exacerbated by environmental issues during his tenure as Secretary.

Secretary Regan’s subject matter expertise in the realm of environmental, energy, economic, and equity issues is apparent in his lifelong record of public service. He previously served at the EPA under both Democratic and Republican presidents — leading initiatives at the agency to improve energy efficiency and air quality and mitigate pollution — and was an Associate Vice President of the Environmental Defense Fund focused on climate issues. He also founded M. Regan & Associates to help organizations navigate challenges at the intersection of energy, the economy, and the environment. Regan earned his bachelor’s degree from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and his master’s degree from The George Washington University. link

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Janet McCabe, Deputy Administrator of the EPA *NEW*

Janet McCabe is an environmental law and policy expert, currently serving as a Professor of Practice at the Indiana University McKinney School of Law and Director of the IU Environmental Resilience Institute, where she started as Assistant Director for Policy and Implementation in 2017.

McCabe joined the EPA in November 2009 as Principal Deputy to the Assistant Administrator of the Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) and served as Acting Assistant Administrator for the OAR from July 2013 through January 2017. She was nominated by President Barack Obama to be the Assistant Administrator of that team. During her tenure at the EPA, McCabe helped develop the Clean Power Plan and worked with state and local agencies to address air toxics and climate change, and protect public health and the environment.

McCabe earned her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and her JD from Harvard Law.

Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality Brenda Mallory

Accomplished public servant and environmental lawyer, who served as a top EPA lawyer and as CEQ Chief Counsel in the Obama-Biden administration Currently serves as Director of Regulatory Policy at the Southern Environmental Law Center Would be the first African American to hold the position since its creation more than half a century ago

Brenda Mallory currently serves as Director of Regulatory Policy at the Southern Environmental Law Center. An experienced public servant and longtime champion of environmental stewardship, she has been an environmental leader at the intersection of law and policy in the public, private, and non-profit sectors for over 30 years.

Prior to her current role, Mallory served as Executive Director and Senior Counsel at the Conservation Litigation Project, where she led efforts to protect public lands and promote scholarship around emerging natural resources issues. Mallory has served in both Democratic and Republican administrations, including as General Counsel on the White House Council on Environmental Quality and as the Principal Deputy General Counsel at the Environmental Protection Agency during the Obama-Biden Administration. She also served as Chair of the Natural Resources Practice Group during her time at the environmental law firm Beveridge & Diamond. With roots in Connecticut, Mallory is a graduate of Yale College and Columbia University School of Law. link

National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy

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Will serve as the first-ever National Climate Advisor to head the newly formed White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy Served as the 13th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Current President and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council

Gina McCarthy served as the 13th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and is currently the President and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council. One of the nation’s most trusted and accomplished voices on climate issues, she has been at the forefront of environmental and public health progress in a variety of leading roles for over three decades.

In her time leading the EPA, McCarthy oversaw successful efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, mitigate air pollution, conserve critical water sources, and safeguard vulnerable communities from chemical hazards. She spearheaded the Obama-Biden Administration’s Clean Power Plan, which set America’s first-ever national standards for lowering carbon emissions from power plants, and helped pave the way for the Paris Climate Agreement. Prior to her current role with the NRDC, McCarthy was a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and currently serves as chair of the board of directors of the Harvard Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment.

Throughout her career, McCarthy has advised five administrations of both Democratic and Republican Massachusetts governors on environmental matters, and she served as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection prior to being appointed by President Obama to head up the EPA’s Air Office. As EPA administrator, she pursued innovative global collaborations with the United Nations and the World Health Organization, and on global efforts to address pollution. Born and raised in Boston, McCarthy graduated from the University of Massachusetts Boston and earned a master of science at Tufts University. link

Deputy National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi Assisted in drafting and implementing the groundbreaking Climate Action Plan and helped negotiate the Paris Climate Agreement Former Office of Management and Budget and White House Domestic Policy Council official during the Obama-Biden Administration Currently serves as New York’s Deputy Secretary for Energy and Environment

Ali Zaidi currently serves the state of New York as Deputy Secretary to the Governor for Energy and Environment and Chairman of Climate Policy and Finance, and leads the state’s efforts on climate change — driving investment into infrastructure and innovation, empowering workers and communities, and boosting economic and environmental resilience. An adjunct professor at Stanford University — where he has taught graduate courses on technology policy and studied the fiscal and financial impacts of climate change — Zaidi co-founded Lawyers for a Sustainable Economy, a Stanford-coordinated initiative that equips sustainability-focused startups with pro bono legal services.

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A longtime advisor to President-elect Biden on climate matters, Zaidi brings the cross- sector and multi-disciplinary experience needed to deliver a whole-of-government response to the climate crisis. During the Obama-Biden Administration, Zaidi served as Associate Director for Natural Resources, Energy, and Science for the Office of Management and Budget and as Deputy Director of Energy Policy for the Domestic Policy Council — helping to design and implement a wide range of domestic and international policies. Zaidi has advised non-profits, including as a Trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council, and counseled the private sector, as an attorney who helped launch a sustainable investment practice.

Zaidi immigrated from Pakistan and grew up outside Erie, Pennsylvania. He received an A.B. from Harvard University and J.D. from Georgetown University. link

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JUSTICE

Attorney General Judge Merrick Garland Currently serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, where he was Chief Judge for seven years

Veteran of the Department of Justice and served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Judge Merrick Garland currently serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, where he was also Chief Judge for seven years. He also served as the Chair of the Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, appointed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. A veteran of the Department of Justice, Judge Garland served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General. During his time at the Department, Judge Garland supervised some of the most high-profile cases in modern history, including the “Unabomber” and Oklahoma City bombing prosecutions.

A fair-minded and independent jurist, Judge Garland was confirmed to serve on the D.C. Circuit in 1997 and has spent more than 23 years pursuing our nation’s ideal of equal justice under law. He is a dedicated and consensus-building public servant who represented underserved Americans pro bono at the outset of his legal career following a clerkship with Supreme Court Justice William Brennan. Judge Garland was also a career federal prosecutor at the Justice Department during the George H.W. Bush Administration, investigating and trying cases involving public corruption, drug trafficking, and fraud.

After winning scholarships to attend Harvard University, he graduated summa cum laude, and earned his law degree from Harvard Law School, where he served on the Harvard Law Review.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco Served in the Department of Justice for fifteen years, spending the majority of her time as a career federal prosecutor The first woman confirmed as Assistant Attorney General for National Security and served as White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor Has demonstrated that public service is about service to the American people, successfully prosecuting a range of cases from violent crime to fraud and public corruption Lisa Monaco is a veteran prosecutor and public servant with decades of experience in the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI, and as White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser. Monaco served in the Department of Justice for fifteen years, spending the majority of her time there as a career federal prosecutor. In 2009, she was appointed Associate Deputy Attorney General and went on to serve as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, responsible for assisting the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General in overall management and supervision of the Department, including the

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country’s 94 United States Attorney Offices. In 2011, Monaco was confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as the first woman Assistant Attorney General for National Security, where she created the first nationwide network of national security cyber prosecutors.

In 2013, Monaco was appointed Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. Earlier in her career, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jane R. Roth on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Counsel to the Attorney General, an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, and as counsel and ultimately Chief of Staff to FBI Director Robert Mueller after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As Assistant U.S. Attorney, she proved that no one was above the law, prosecuting a range of cases from violent crime to fraud and public corruption, including serving on the Enron Task Force, for which she received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service — the Justice Department’s highest award.

Monaco is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta Served as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division from 2014-2017 One of the most respected civil rights attorneys in America, and former chief civil rights prosecutor for the United States The Indian-American daughter of immigrants, Gupta would be the first woman of color to serve in this role Currently serving as President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Vanita Gupta has dedicated her career to protecting and advancing democracy and the civil rights of all Americans. From October 2014 to January 2017, Gupta served as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division — the chief civil rights prosecutor for the United States. In this role, Gupta led critical efforts to reform our criminal justice system, including investigating the Ferguson, Baltimore, and Chicago police departments, prosecuting hate crimes, protecting disability and LGBTQ+ rights, voting rights, and fighting discrimination in education, housing, lending, and employment.

Prior to her time in the Justice Department, Gupta was a staff attorney at the ACLU, ultimately becoming the Deputy Legal Director and the Director of the Center for Justice. While at the ACLU, Gupta led the Smart Justice Campaign aimed at ending mass incarceration. She started her legal career as an attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, where she successfully led the effort to overturn the wrongful drug convictions of 38 individuals in Tulia, Texas, who were ultimately pardoned by then- Governor Rick Perry.

Gupta graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and received her law degree from New York University School of Law.

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Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Kristen Clarke Served in the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, where she handled cases of hate crimes, human trafficking, police misconduct, voting rights, and redistricting cases Current president and executive director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Kristen Clarke has extensive law enforcement and civil rights experience, starting her career in civil rights as a career attorney in the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice. While at the Department, she was a federal prosecutor in the Criminal Section of the Division, responsible for cases of police misconduct, hate crimes, and human trafficking. Through the Division’s Voting Section, she also worked on voting rights and redistricting cases.

Clarke currently serves as president and executive director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee). She has also served as the head of the Civil Rights Bureau for the New York State Attorney General’s Office, where she successfully led landmark efforts to address discrimination in housing, the school-to-prison pipeline, and reforming practices and policies of police departments. Clarke served at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where she focused on voting rights and election law.

Clarke received her A.B. from Harvard University and her J.D. from Columbia Law School.

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117th Congress

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Senate Leadership elections link

On November 10th, the Senate Democratic and Republican Caucuses held their leadership elections. A pair of Georgia runoff elections that won't take place until January are on track to determine whether Republicans or Democrats wield the Senate majority next year, but both parties still pressed ahead with elections for top leadership posts for the next session of Congress.

Senate Republican Leadership Senate Republican leadership elections took place Tuesday, November 10th, in a closed- door meeting. Elections were determined by majority vote and secret ballot. Mitch McConnell was reelected unanimously as Republican leader. The full slate of current GOP leadership had been expected to remain on with the exception of the chairman of the Senate Republican campaign arm. Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida was elected to lead the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the upcoming election cycle, a position currently held by Indiana Sen. Todd Young. It's typical for there to be a new leader in a new election cycle, and Scott's bid was uncontested.

Republican Majority Leader – Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Majority Whip – John Thune (R-SD) Republican Conference Chairman – John Barrasso (R-WY) Republican Policy Committee Chairman – Roy Blunt (R-MO) Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference – Joni Ernst (R-IA) Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman – Rick Scott (R-FL)

Senate Democrat Leadership Current Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer were reelected by Senate party leaders on Tuesday during leadership elections held even as the battle for control of the chamber is still underway.

The Senate Democratic caucus reelected Schumer as Senate Democratic leader and the full leadership team by acclamation, according to a Democratic source.

Democratic Leader, Chairman of the Conference – Chuck Schumer (D-NY) Democratic Whip – Dick Durbin (D-IL)

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Assistant Democratic Leader – Patty Murray (D-WA) Chairwoman of Policy & Communications Committee – Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) Vice Chair of the Conference – Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) Vice Chair of the Conference – Mark Warner (D-VA) Chair of the Steering Committee – Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) Chairman of Outreach – Bernie Sanders (I-VT) Vice-Chairman of Outreach – Catherine Cortex Masto (D-NV) Vice Chairman of Policy & Communications Committee – Joe Manchin (D-WV) Vice Chairman of Policy & Communications Committee – Cory Booker (D-NJ) Secretary of the Conference – Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) Chairman of the Campaign Committee – Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

Tuesday's voting process in the Democrat leadership elections will not include any determinations on committee assignments, committee leadership roles or the chairmanship of the Democratic Senate campaign arm, all of which will happen at a later date as is typical for the Democratic caucus.

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House Leadership Elections

House Democratic Leadership

Top Democratic leaders reclaimed their roles for the next Congress the week of November 16th when the caucus voted on their leadership team. While the top positions were uncontested, there were a few competitive races down ballot. The election was held via an app.

Speaker of the House -Nancy Pelosi - A full House floor vote for the speakership will take place in January, and Pelosi is poised to remain in the top leadership post for House Democrats. Pelosi pledged in 2019 that she would only serve four more years as speaker, meaning the next Congress would be her last.

Majority Leader – Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) ran uncontested for another term. Majority Whip – Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) ran uncontested for another term.

Assistant Speaker -Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark - fourth-ranking post, assistant speaker

Caucus Chair –Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) ran uncontested for another term.

Vice Chair of the Caucus – Rep. Pete Aguilar (CA) was elected in a contested race making him the highest-ranking Latino. link

Co-Chairs - The caucus also voted by acclamation to elect four co-chairs to the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee as that’s how many candidates were running. The current three DPCC co-chairs, Michigan’s Debbie Dingell, California’s Ted Lieu and Pennsylvania’s Matt Cartwright, were reelected to a second term — their last per caucus rules. Colorado’s Joe Neguse, an outgoing freshman leadership representative, was also elected to the messaging arm, filling a fourth co-chair seat that the caucus installed this fall to replace the so-called “chair of chairs position” created two years ago for Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline. link

Leadership Liaison with junior members of the caucus - Rep. Colin Allred (TX) narrowly won a three-way race for caucus leadership representative. link

Chair of the DCCC – Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (N.Y.) link

Democratic Steering and Policy Committee: Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) link

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House Republican leadership

The top three highest-ranking House Republicans will remain in their leadership posts in the 117th session of Congress following elections held on Tuesday, November 17th.

House Republican Leader - Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California was reelected by the members of the Republican conference to continue on as House GOP leader. House Republican Whip – Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana was reelected. House Republican Conference Chair - Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming was reelected. Republican Policy Committee Chairman – Rep. Gary Palmer was reelected. Chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee - Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota was also reelected on Tuesday as chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans. House Republican Conference Vice-Chair – Rep. Mike Johnson (R LA) House Republican Conference Secretary – Rep. Rich Hudson (R-NC)

The top tier of House GOP leadership had been expected to be reelected after House Republicans outperformed expectations in the 2020 elections and ousted a number of vulnerable Democratic incumbents. Though still in the minority, the GOP leadership team is riding a wave of success on the heels of an election performance that surprised even some if the conference's own members. McCarthy, who has to this point successfully bridged the gap between restive hardline conservatives inside the conference and more traditional GOP members, heads a unified operation that has already started turning its attention toward winning back the majority in 2022. House Republicans met in-person at a hotel near Capitol Hill — with a waiver from the DC government amid an uptick in Covid-19 cases — to hold their leadership votes.

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House Committee Leadership Elections

Three committee chairs won’t be retaining their gavels next year: Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson (Minn.), who lost his race on Election Day to a Republican, Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel (N.Y.), who lost a primary fight earlier this year, and Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey (N.Y.), who’s retiring.

House Democrat Committee Chairmen for the 117th Congress

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) won the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee’s recommendation on Tuesday to serve as the next House Appropriations chairwoman. DeLauro faces Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) in the competition to succeed retiring Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.).

Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.) received the Steering Committee’s endorsement on Tuesday to chair the House Foreign Affairs Committee, James Rowley reports. Rep. Brad Sherman (D- Calif.) withdrew his candidacy after the recommendation, making it a two-way race between Meeks and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas).

The Steering Committee recommended Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) on Tuesday to lead the House Agriculture Committee after Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) lost his re-election bid to Republican Michelle Fischbach.

The House Democratic Caucus will vote on those and other picks today, December 3rd. link

* new Agriculture – Rep. David Scott (D-GA) * House Democratic Steering Committee recommended Representative David Scott (D-Ga.) to become chairman of the House Agriculture Committee when a new Congress is formed in 2021. link

Appropriations – Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)*

DeLauro won in a 148-79 caucus-wide vote after vying for the top spot for more than a year against Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Marcy Kaptur of Ohio. DeLauro has pledged to reform the appropriations process and make it more transparent and accessible to members, while better targeting federal investments to underserved and marginalized communities. She has vowed to dispatch with the Hyde Amendment, a provision tucked into annual spending bills for decades that bars the use of federal funds to pay for abortion. And she supports bringing back earmarked spending next Congress with increased transparency — a priority for many House Democrats and even some Republicans who think that annual spending bills should present more opportunities to secure cash for pet projects at home. link

Armed Services – Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) Budget – Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY)

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Education and Labor – Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) Energy and Commerce – Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) issued the following statement after the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee recommended the appointment of the following members to the Energy and Commerce Committee for the 117th Congress:

• Representatives Angie Craig (D-MN) • Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX) • Kathleen Rice (D-NY) • Kim Schrier (D-WA), • Lori Trahan (D-MA) Financial Services – Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) Foreign Affairs – Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) * Meeks will be the first African-American chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, winning a caucus-wide vote on Thursday to secure the top spot of the panel. He is replacing Rep. Elliot Engel (D-NY) who lost his June primary contest. Meeks, who was the third-ranking member of the committee, beat out Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) in the caucus-wide vote, 148-78. Castro had run a public campaign garnering outside support from dozens of progressive groups endorsing him to lead the committee.

Rep. Brad Sherman, the second-ranking member of the committee, had withdrawn his name from the race following a vote in the Democrats Steering and Policy Committee. link

Homeland Security: Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MI)

House Administration: Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)

Judiciary – Rep. Jerrold Nadler of (D-NY) Natural Resources – Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) Oversight and Government Reform – Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)

Rules: Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA)

Science, Space and Technology – Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) Small Business – Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) Transportation and Infrastructure – Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR)

Veterans Affairs – Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) Ways and Means – Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA)

House Republican Ranking Members for the 117th Congress link * new

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Agriculture – Rep. GT Thompson (PA-15) * Ranking Member Thompson previously served as vice chairman of the Agriculture Committee and most recently as ranking member of three of its subcommittees. He comes from a family of dairy farmers, and has lived in rural Pennsylvania his whole life. He is replacing 116th Congress Ranking Member K. Michael Conaway from Texas. Appropriations – Rep. Kay Granger (TX-12) Armed Services – Rep. Mike Rogers (AL-3) * He previously served as Chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee for four years and served on the Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee. Budget – Rep. Jason Smith (MO-8) * While running his family farm and practicing law, Ranking Member Smith learned the importance of balancing a budget. He’s worked to undo burdensome regulations and taxes in his years on the Budget Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee. Education and Labor – Rep. Virginia Foxx (NC-5) Energy and Commerce – Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05) * Ranking Member McMorris Rodgers has been a leader in this conference and on the Energy and Commerce Committee for many years. She honorably served as Chair of the House Republican Conference for six years, and is currently the co-chair of the Rural Health Caucus, where she advocates for better access to affordable and quality health care services in the nation’s rural communities – something Congress must continue to focus on as the opioid epidemic continues to devastate families and communities. Financial Services – Rep. Patrick McHenry (NC-10) Foreign Affairs – Rep. Michael McCaul (TX-10) Homeland Security - Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) will take over as the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee after Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) left the slot to for the Armed Services Committee. Judiciary – Rep. Jim Jordan (OH-4) Natural Resources – Rep. Bruce Westerman (AR-4) * Ranking Member Westerman is the only member of Congress with a Master of Forestry from Yale University. Oversight and Government Reform – Rep. James Comer (KY-1) Science, Space and Technology – Rep. Frank Lucas (OK-3) Small Business – Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-3) * Ranking Member Blaine Luetkemeyer is a former small business owner, a leader in the development of the Paycheck Protection Program, and a key member of President Trump’s Task Force to Reopen the Economy. Transportation and Infrastructure – Rep. Sam Graves (MO-6) Veterans Affairs – Rep. Mike Bost (IL-12) *

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Ranking Member Bost has a unique understanding of our nation's veterans because he has similarly served this country his entire life: as a marine, a firefighter, a local job creator, and a truck driver and manager. Ways and Means – Rep. Kevin Brady (TX-6)

Rep. Kay Granger (TX), Republican Leader of the House Appropriations Committee, announced the Republican Steering Committee’s recommendations for subcommittee ranking members and new Republican committee members for the 117th Congress. The recommendations will need to be ratified by the Republican Conference. Republican Committee Leadership –

• Vice Ranking Member of the Full Committee – Rep. Tom Cole (OK) • Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration – Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (NE) • Commerce, Justice, Science – Rep. Robert Aderholt (AL) • Defense – Rep. Ken Calvert (CA) • Energy and Water Development – Rep. Mike Simpson (ID) • Financial Services and General Government – Rep. Steve Womack (AR) • Homeland Security – Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (TN) • Interior and Environment – Rep. David Joyce (OH) • Labor, Health and Human Services, Education – Rep. Tom Cole (OK) • Legislative Branch – Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA) • Military Construction and Veterans Affairs – Rep. John Carter (TX) • State Department, Foreign Operations – Rep. Hal Rogers (KY) • Transportation, Housing and Urban Development – Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (FL)

New Republican Members –

• Rep. David Valadao (CA) • Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (PA) • Rep. Mike Garcia (CA) • Rep. Ben Cline (VA) • Rep. Tony Gonzales (TX) • Rep. Ashley Hinson (IA)

Subcommittees: Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration (117th Congress) Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (117th Congress) Defense (117th Congress) Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies (117th Congress) Financial Services and General Government (117th Congress)

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Homeland Security (117th Congress) Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies (117th Congress) Labor, Health and Human Services, Education (117th Congress) Legislative Branch (117th Congress) Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related (117th Congress) State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (117th Congress) Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related (117th Congress)

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New Democrat House Committee Assignments for 117th Congress Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House Democratic Steering Committee has nominated appointments to the House Appropriations Committee, Energy and Commerce Committee, Financial Services Committee and Ways and Means Committee. The nominations will now go to the full Democratic Caucus for approval. “It is an honor to announce the nomination of these outstanding Members to our exclusive committees for the 117th Congress,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “Their proven expertise, leadership and commitment to hard-working families have earned them the respect and support of our Caucus and will make them a vital force For The People by advancing economic security, promoting justice and opportunity and protecting the health and well-being of our communities. House Democrats are united in our mission to Build Back Better, and with these strong voices at the table, we will deliver on that sacred promise to make a real difference for all Americans.” The Steering Committee approved the following new Committee members:

Appropriations

• Congressman Adriano Espaillat of New York • Congressman Josh Harder of California • Congresswoman Susie Lee of Nevada • Congressman David Trone of Maryland • Congresswoman Lauren Underwood of Illinois • Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton of Virginia

Agriculture Committee:

• Congresswoman Cindy Axne of Iowa • Congresswoman Cheri Bustos of Illinois • Congressman Salud Carbajal of California • Congressman Lou Correa of California • Congresswoman Angie Craig of Minnesota • Congressman Josh Harder of California • Congressman Ro Khanna of California • Congresswoman Ann McLane Kuster of New Hampshire • Congressman Al Lawson of Florida • Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney of New York • Congressman Tom O’Halleran of Arizona • Congresswoman Chellie Pingree of Maine • Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands • Congressman Bobby Rush of Illinois • Congressman Gregorio Sablan of the Northern Mariana Islands • Congresswoman Kim Schrier of Washington

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Armed Services Committee:

• Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy of Florida • Congressman Jimmy Panetta of California • Congressman Marc Veasey of Texas • Congressman Joseph Morelle of New York • Congressman Kai Kahele of Hawaii • Congresswoman Sara Jacobs of California •

Education and Labor Committee:

• Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas • Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin • Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey • Congressman Mondaire Jones of New York •

Energy and Commerce

• Congresswoman Angie Craig of Minnesota • Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher of Texas • Congresswoman Kathleen Rice of New York • Congresswoman Kim Schrier of Washington • Congresswoman Lori Trahan of Massachusetts

Financial Services Committee:

• Congresswoman Alma Adams of North Carolina • Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania • Congressman Chuy García of Illinois • Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia of Texas • Congressman Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts • Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York • Congressman David Scott of Georgia • Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan • Congressman Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts • Congresswoman Nikema Williams of Georgia • Congressman-elect Ritchie Torres of New York • •

Foreign Affairs Committee:

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• Congressman Jim Costa of California • Congressman Vicente González of Texas • Congressman Juan Vargas of California • Congresswoman Kathy Manning of North Carolina • Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland of Washington •

Homeland Security Committee:

• Congresswoman Nanette Barragán of California • Congresswoman Yvette Clarke of New York • Congressman Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri • Congresswoman Val Demings of Florida • Congressman Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey • Congressman Al Green of Texas • Congresswoman Elaine Luria of Virginia • Congressman Tom Malinowski of New Jersey • Congresswoman Kathleen Rice of New York • Congressman Eric Swalwell of California • Congresswoman Dina Titus of Nevada • Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey • Congressman Ritchie Torres of New York •

Natural Resources Committee:

• Congressman Ed Case of Hawaii • Congresswoman Diana DeGette of Colorado • Congresswoman Debbie Dingell of Michigan • Congressman Chuy García of Illinois • Congressman Donald McEachin of Virginia • Congressman Michael San Nicolas of Guam • Congressman Darren Soto of Florida • Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez of New York

Oversight and Reform Committee:

• Congressman Danny Davis of Illinois • Congressman Mark DeSaulnier of California • Congressman Jimmy Gomez of California • Congressman Hank Johnson of Georgia • Congresswoman Robin Kelly of Illinois • Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence of Michigan • Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts • Congressman John Sarbanes of Maryland • Congresswoman Jackie Speier of California • Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida

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• Congressman Peter Welch of Vermont • Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York • Congresswoman Katie Porter of California • Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan • Congresswoman Cori Bush of Missouri •

Rules Committee

• In addition to Chairman McGovern, the Democratic Committee Members are

• Congressman Alcee Hastings of Florida • Congresswoman Norma Torres of California • Congressman Ed Perlmutter of Colorado • Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland • Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania • Congressman Joe Morelle of New York • Congressman Mark DeSaulnier of California • Congresswoman Deborah Ross of North Carolina

Science, Space and Technology Committee:

• Congressman Don Beyer of Virginia • Congressman Sean Casten of Illinois • Congressman Charlie Crist of Florida • Congressman Bill Foster of Illinois • Congressman Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania • Congressman Jerry McNerney of California • Congressman Donald Norcross of New Jersey • Congressman Ed Perlmutter of Colorado • Congressman Brad Sherman of California • Congresswoman Deborah Ross of North Carolina • Congressman Paul Tonko of New York • Congressman Jamaal Bowman of New York •

Small Business Committee:

• Congresswoman Judy Chu California • Congressman Antonio Delgado of New York • Congressman Dwight Evans of Pennsylvania • Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania • Congressman Scott Peters of California • Congressman Brad Schneider of Illinois • Congressman Dean Phillips of Minnesota • Congresswoman Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia • Congresswoman Marie Newman of Illinois

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Veterans Affairs Committee:

• Congressman Colin Allred of Texas • Congresswoman Lauren Underwood of Illinois • Congressman Gregorio Sablan of the Northern Mariana Islands • Congressman Frank Mrvan of Indiana

Ways and Means

• Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands

Senate Committee Assignments Since the U.S. Senate’s makeup is still dependent on the Georgia special election on January 5, leadership at the committee level is still shaking out.

There will not be changes in the Senate leaders with Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) still retaining their leadership roles; however, the Georgia race will decide who will be the Senate Majority Leader.

The Republican status may also shape some Republican Committee assignments. Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) could become the next Senate Finance Committee chair as Senator Grassley (R-IA) steps aside due to party-imposed limits.

If the Democrats are the majority party, then Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) will return as Finance Chair.

Another key committee also undecided is the Senate HELP Committee, where Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) is retiring.

Next in line is Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), but there could be controversy because of earlier year allegations about potential stock profits linked to what pandemic intelligence report information he knew about ahead of the public.

Senator Burr has expressed his interest in the post.

If the Republicans retain the majority and Burr does not become chair, it would likely be Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), next in line.

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117th Congress House Committees Agendas

Administration: Elections and voting rights are likely to remain as top priorities of the House Administration Committee in the next Congress, as Democrats are likely to once again push a bill to expand voting rights, protect whistleblowers, and crack down on potential conflicts of interest in the executive branch. The panel played a pivotal role in assembling that measure (H.R. 1), which the House passed by a 234-193 party-line vote in 2019. The wide-ranging bill sought to restore felons’ voting rights, create a grant program to bolster states’ election systems, and establish online and automatic voter registration. Read more from Kenneth P. Doyle and Emily Wilkins. Agriculture: The House Agriculture Committee will return in the 117th Congress to hash out additional coronavirus pandemic aid for farmers and ranchers, and could act on the long-awaited reauthorization of child nutrition programs and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It isn’t clear who will succeed Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), who lost his re-election bid to Republican Michelle Fischbach, though Reps. David Scott (Ga.), Jim Costa (Calif.), and Marcia Fudge (Ohio) are currently the most senior Democrats on the panel. Read more from Megan U. Boyanton.

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Appropriations: Big changes are under discussion by Democrats in the three-way campaign to lead the House Appropriations Committee, including a return to earmarks and an end to the decades-old ban on federal funds for abortions. Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D- Ohio), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) are vying to succeed retiring Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.). Before lawmakers can focus on proposals for the 117th Congress, they first must fund the federal government for the remainder of fiscal 2021; Congress faces a Dec. 11 deadline to avoid a shutdown. Read more from Jack Fitzpatrick. Armed Services: Strong national security, powered by innovation and competition, and paid for by a “reasonable” budget will be the overarching theme for Rep. Adam Smith’s (D- Wash.) leadership of the House Armed Services Committee next year. “When you look at where our budget is at right now—$741 billion—and then you look at the wish list, I mean gosh,” Smith said of the Defense Department’s requests, which have ranged from a 500- ship Navy to new aircraft for the Air Force. Read more from Roxana Tiron. Budget: A recession, a federal debt nearly the size of the U.S. economy, and a Democratic caucus divided over fiscal policy will put the pressure on Budget Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) as he preps a fiscal 2022 budget resolution in the 117th Congress. Yarmuth will attempt to shepherd a budget resolution through his committee, he said in an Oct. 15 interview. Democrats had hoped to include reconciliation instructions to pass coronavirus relief and health care bills in the Senate with a simple majority, but Republicans’ defense of key Senate seats has put that plan in doubt. Read more from Jack Fitzpatrick. Education and Labor: Democrats running the House Education and Labor Committee will renew efforts to make college more affordable and raise wages for workers in 2021, but the timing of those priorities will be determined by Congress’s pandemic response. Education was hit particularly hard, with campuses shut for months, while schools that did re-open for in-person instruction absorbed huge costs from testing and health protocols. Those crises will occupy much of the committee’s work even as Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va.) tries to sustain momentum for long-held Democratic priorities on higher education, pay fairness, and union protections. Read more from Andrew Kreighbaum and James Rowley. Energy and Commerce: House Energy and Commerce Democrats expect to return to Capitol Hill next year with an agenda similar to last session’s: advance environmental protection and clean energy, strengthen the Affordable Care Act, and safeguarding consumers’ data privacy. Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) plans to formally unveil climate legislation that aims to achieve a 100% clean economy by 2050, but some progressives say that’s not strong enough. Members also will seek to improve energy access, affordability, and reliability: key issues to the country’s recovery from the pandemic and to parts of the U.S. that continue to suffer severe natural disasters. Read more from Kellie Lunney, Alex Ruoff and Rebecca Kern. Financial Services: Addressing the continuing housing crisis and other economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic will stay the top priority of the House Financial Services Committee next year. Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) can be expected to continue pushing legislation to extend rental and mortgage assistance to jobless tenants and homeowners facing eviction or foreclosure. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-

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N.C.) will likely stay in place as the committee’s top Republican, though a House GOP leadership shuffle could propel him to a conference-elected post. Read more from James Rowley. Foreign Affairs: Democrats returning to lead the House Foreign Affairs Committee will likely look to reshape U.S. diplomacy and presidential war authority in the 117th Congress. Three members are vying to succeed Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), who lost his primary, and the outcome is uncertain. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), the next most senior Democrat on the committee and a staunch supporter of Israel, faces challenges from Reps. Gregory Meeks (N.Y.) and Joaquin Castro (Texas), who have been more willing to break with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Naoreen Chowdhury has more. Homeland Security: Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) wants his Homeland Security Committee in the 117th Congress to have full oversight of the Homeland Security Department’s myriad of agencies, assuming jurisdiction from other powerful committees. Immigration also ranks high on his priorities list. “Whether it’s family separation, whether it is a multi-billion-dollar border wall, the visa program, the Muslim travel ban—all those things that have just gone against the value system of who we are as Americans,” Thompson said. Read more from Shaun Courtney. Judiciary: Reining in big tech, changing immigration policies, and addressing police conduct will top the House Judiciary Committee’s to-do list with Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D- N.Y.) likely to remain chairman. Nadler, who’s been in the position since 2019, could help shepherd a legislative effort to rewrite U.S. antitrust laws governing how companies, such as Alphabet’s Google and Facebook, operate and compete. Democrats will likely to their continue efforts to implement a ban on chokeholds and no-knock warrants for federal law enforcement. Victoria Graham and Rebecca Kern have more. Natural Resources: Climate change and environmental justice legislation will top the agenda for the House Committee on Natural Resources, which will remain under Democratic control in the 117th Congress. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) intends to keep the panel’s gavel for the next term and there are no challengers, a committee spokesman said. The committee will focus most on justice and oversight, regardless of the outcome of the presidential race, the spokesman said ahead of the election. Read more from Bobby Magill. Oversight and Reform: Scrutinizing the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, overseeing the U.S. Postal Service, and getting an accurate Census count will continue in the 117th Congress, lawmakers on the Oversight and Reform Committee said. This will be the first full term for committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), who took over after Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) died in October 2019. Leadership of the subcommittees is likely to be the same—except in the Environment Subcommittee where Harley Rouda’s (D- Calif.) race has yet to be called—as none of those representatives are retiring. Read more from Shira Stein and Louis C. LaBrecque. Rules: House Rules Chairman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) wants Congress to take back its Constitutional powers in the year ahead, regardless of which party holds the White House. “Democrats think Donald Trump has usurped congressional authority and Republicans think Obama did,” McGovern said. “We want to figure out a way to reassert our authority, to not cede everything to the executive branch, no matter who is in control.” His committee

124 began holding hearings on reclaiming congressional authority in the 116th Congress, but Covid-19 put plans on hold. Read more from Emily Wilkins. Science, Space, and Technology: Leadership on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee likely will look much like it has for the last two years, with Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) holding onto the gavel. Johnson has pushed for more federal research activities to prepare for extreme weather events. She characterized the extreme heat and increasingly severe storms of the past summer as an environmental injustice issue at a Sept. 30 Environment Subcommittee hearing, adding that disadvantaged communities bore the brunt of the impacts. Read more from Dean Scott and Naoreen Chowdhury. Small Business: House Small Business Committee members will likely have their hands full for the foreseeable future dealing with the pandemic’s unprecedented effects on local economies and businesses. Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), who won re-election handily and plans to maintain her role as chairwoman in the 117th Congress, will oversee those efforts. “The pandemic has created a once in a generation crisis for small business,” Velázquez told Bloomberg Government in a statement. Read more from Jacob Rund. Transportation and Infrastructure: Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) will return to Congress with a clear goal: reauthorize surface transportation programs. DeFazio will likely use Democrats’ $500 billion highway, transit, and rail bill from this Congress— passed as part of H.R. 2—as the starting point for talks next year. His success hinges on whether he can get others to agree on how to pay for it. The Democrats’ highway bill is “ready-made for what looks to be a fairly long period with the virus,” according to Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), chairwoman of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee. Courtney Rozen has more. Veterans’ Affairs: Reducing suicides and addressing the pandemic will likely be a top priority for the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee in the 117th Congress. But first, committee leaders are pushing for final action during the lame-duck session on some of the panel’s top agenda items. Veterans groups said they expect the committee will renew its efforts on any bills that don’t make it to the president’s desk by the end of the year. Chairman Mark Takano (D-Calif.) will be joined next year by a new ranking Republican. Michael Smallberg has more. Ways and Means: Pandemic relief will top the agenda for Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.), will keep his role in the 117th Congress. Neal and other House Democrats will also turn their attention to how they can tweak or change the 2017 Republican tax law, such as removing its $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions. Other changes that have been discussed by Democrats include increasing the corporate income tax to 28%, from 21%, and increasing the tax on those making more than $400,000 a year. But such changes will be unlikely if the Republicans hold on to the Senate. Read more from Kaustuv Basu.

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