Indian-American public policy expert Neera Tanden has been named by US President Joe Biden as his Domestic Policy Advisor to help him craft and implement his domestic policy agenda, making her the first Asian-American to lead any of the three major White House policy councils in history.
Tanden, 52, replaces Susan Rice as Biden's Domestic Policy Advisor
Tanden, a Democrat, currently serves as Senior Advisor to President Biden and Staff Secretary.
She served in both the Obama and Clinton administrations, as well as presidential campaigns and think tanks. Most recently, she was the President and CEO of the Center for American Progress and the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Tanden previously served as senior advisor for health reform at the Department of Health and Human Services, working on President Obama's health reform team in the White House.
Tanden joined the administration in 2021 as a senior adviser after withdrawing her Cabinet nomination to run the Office of Management and Budget, which failed to garner sufficient support in the Senate. She faced strong opposition from key Republican and Democratic senators over the tone and language she used in some of her tweets.
Prior to that, she was the director of domestic policy for the Obama-Biden presidential campaign and served as policy director for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Tanden served as senior advisor to the Chancellor of the New York City Schools as well as Associate Director for Domestic Policy in the Clinton White House and Senior Policy Advisor to the First Lady.
She received her Bachelor of Science from UCLA and her Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School.
The President also announced that Stefanie Feldman will serve as Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary. Additionally, Zayn Siddique will be promoted to Principal Deputy of the Domestic Policy Council.