Indian-American to be policy director of next US First Lady

 

An Indian-American, Mala Adiga, has been appointed as the policy director of Jill Biden, the wife of US President-elect Joe Biden, who will be the First Lady.

 

Ms. Adiga has served as a senior adviser to Jill Biden and a senior policy adviser on the Biden-Kamala Harris campaign. Earlier, Ms. Adiga was director for Higher Education and Military Families at the Biden Foundation.

 

During President Barack Obama’s administration, Mala Adiga served as the 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, besides as director for human rights on the National Security Staff.

 

A graduate of Grinnell College, the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and the University of Chicago Law School, Ms. Adiga is a native of Illinois.

 

A lawyer by training, Ms. Adiga had been a clerk for a federal and had worked for a Chicago law firm before joining the campaign of former president Barack Obama in 2008.

 

She started in the Obama administration as a counsel to the associate attorney general.

 

Joe Biden made the announcement of her appointment as he announced the names of four new members of his White House senior staff.