Sunday, February 1, 2026
ADVT 
International

This Indian-American Leads Hillary Clinton's Agenda Team

Darpan News Desk IANS, 16 Apr, 2015 12:27 PM
    Making her second presidential run, Hillary Clinton has set up a three person team of senior policy advisers headed by Indian-American Maya Harris, a former senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
     
    The team will help develop an agenda for her presidential campaign that would be unfolded in a series of policy rollouts expected to begin late next month after her early phase of road trips to meet voters, Politico reported.
     
    Two others on the policy team are Ann O'Leary, a former legislative director to Clinton when she was in the Senate; and Jake Sullivan, a top aide to Clinton while she was Secretary of State and a former national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.
     
    Besides the policy team, Clinton is also likely to keep getting informal advice from another Indian-American Neera Tanden, the current president of CAP and a longtime adviser.
     
    Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta headed President Barack Obama's executive action agenda until earlier this year and was the founder of the CAP.
     
    Harris, 46, has a background in human rights, having served as Vice President of Democracy, Rights and Justice at the Ford Foundation, where she led a team that promoted effective governance, democracy and human rights around the world.
     
    She is the younger sister of Kamala Harris, California's first Indian-American-African attorney general who is now running for Senate.
     
    Their mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a cancer researcher who came to the US from Chennai in 1960, is of Indian descent while their father is from Jamaica.
     
    Harris received her bachelor's degree from the University of California at Berkeley and graduated with distinction from Stanford Law School.
     
     
    At age 29, Harris was recruited to serve as dean and chief executive officer of Lincoln Law School of San Jose making her one of the country's youngest law school deans.
     
    Harris later served as executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, of Northern California, where she led the litigation, public education, advocacy, and organizing efforts of the nation's largest ACLU affiliate.
     
    Harris is married to Tony West, who left the Obama administration last September after five years as associate attorney general, the third top official in the Justice Department. They have one daughter, Meena.

    MORE International ARTICLES

    Friends Say Fitness Model Killed By Train Was Fearless But Careful, Made A Freak Mistake

    Friends Say Fitness Model Killed By Train Was Fearless But Careful, Made A Freak Mistake
    LOS ANGELES — Friends of a fitness model and actor who was hit by a train and killed while making a video said Monday that he was a bold and fearless person who just made a rare mistake.

    Friends Say Fitness Model Killed By Train Was Fearless But Careful, Made A Freak Mistake

    Kitchen Nightmare: Gordon Ramsay Loses Court Battle Over $1 Million Rent On London Pub

    Kitchen Nightmare: Gordon Ramsay Loses Court Battle Over $1 Million Rent On London Pub
    LONDON — Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is facing a kitchen nightmare after a British judge ruled him personally liable for rent on a London gastropub.

    Kitchen Nightmare: Gordon Ramsay Loses Court Battle Over $1 Million Rent On London Pub

    US warning reports baseless, says Pakistan envoy

    US warning reports baseless, says Pakistan envoy
    Pakistan ambassador to the US Jalil Abbas Jilani denounced Indian media reports which alleged a warning, concerning President Obama's visit to India...

    US warning reports baseless, says Pakistan envoy

    IS threatens to kill Japanese hostages, seeks ransom

    IS threatens to kill Japanese hostages, seeks ransom
    The Islamic State (IS) jihadis, in a new video, have demanded a ransom of $200 million for the release of two Japanese hostages, media reported Tuesday....

    IS threatens to kill Japanese hostages, seeks ransom

    UN worker kidnapped in CAR by militants

    UN worker kidnapped in CAR by militants
    A United Nations staffer in the Central African Republic (CAR) was kidnapped near Bangui airport Tuesday by the Anti-Balaka Christian militant group, Xinhua reported citing sources....

    UN worker kidnapped in CAR by militants

    US treats India as pawn in its strategy: Chinese daily

    US treats India as pawn in its strategy: Chinese daily
    The US is only treating India as a pawn in its rebalancing strategy to the Asia-Pacific region, a Chinese daily said Tuesday....

    US treats India as pawn in its strategy: Chinese daily