SIPA Faculty and Alumni Join Biden-Harris Administration

A number of SIPA faculty and alumni have already joined the new Biden-Harris administration in a variety of roles. This list will be updated as appointments continue.



Did we miss someone? Please send updates to Susan Storms, SIPA's director of alumni affairs.

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Faculty and Scholars

Sohini Chatterjee will serve as a senior policy advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to the UN. 

Avril Haines was confirmed as director of national intelligence on January 20.

Alexander Hertel-Fernandez has been appointed chief evaluation officer at the Department of Labor.

Noah Kaufman will serve as a senior economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Richard Nephew was appointed deputy to the special envoy to Iran at the US Department of State.

Varun Sivaram has joined the administration as senior adviser to the former secretary of state John F. Kerry, who is now a special presidential envoy for climate.

 

Alumni

Alice Albright MIA ’85 was confirmed as the chief executive officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation on February 7, 2022.

Caroline Baxter MIA ’09 joined the Department of Defense on August 16 as deputy assistant secretary of defense for force education and training.

Amit Bose MIA ’95 is the new deputy administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration. On April 22 he was nominated to be the agency's administrator.

Asha Castleberry-Hernandez MIA ’12 will be a new senior adviser in the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.

Raphael Chavez-Fernandez EMPA ’19 has been appointed deputy assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs in the Department of Veteran Affairs.

Julie Chung MIA '96 has been nominated as U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka; she served from January 20 through August 3 as the acting assistant secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.

Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis MIA ’78 will serve as acting representative for special political affairs for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. 

Chris DeRusha MIA ’09, IF ’09, the former top cybersecurity official the Biden campaign, will become the federal government's chief information security officer. 

Kevin Fashola MIA '17 will serve as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti MIA ’95 was nominated on July 9 to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to India. 

Pronita Gupta MIA ’96 serves on the Domestic Policy Council as the special assistant to the president for labor and workers.

Lindsay Hamilton MIA '07 will serve as associate administrator for public affairs at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Karine Jean-Pierre MPA '03 was named White House principal deputy press secretary, after serving as senior advisor to now President Biden and chief of staff to now Vice President Harris during the campaign.

Krystal Laymon MPA-ESP ’12 serves as deputy director for climate resilience at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Ambassador Nancy McEldowney MIA ’86 will serve as national security adviser to Vice President Harris.

Patrick Meyers MPA '15 is now a Researcher on the White House Office of Presidential Personnel following service on the Biden-Harris transition team.

Shara Mohtadi MIA ’15 has been appointed chief of staff in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Anne Neuberger MIA ’05 will take on a new role, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, on the National Security Council.

Ambassador Michael A. Raynor MIA ’86 was nominated on April 19 to serve as U.S. ambassador to both Senegal and Guinea-Bissau.

Daniel E. White MPA ’20 has been sworn in as special assistant to the assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans, and capabilities.

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