WASHINGTON: President-elect Joe Biden's transition team has appointed Indian American Vedant Patel as the Assistant White House Press Secretary. The announcement was made by the Biden-Harris transition team on Dec. 18. According to a post on the team's website, Patel previously served as Regional Communications Director on the Biden-Harris Campaign.
During Biden's primary campaign, Patel served as the Nevada and Western Primary-States Communications Director. He had also worked as Communications Director to Indian American 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. Patel tweeted: "I took the leap with Joe Biden when he announced because I believed in his vision for what this country could be. On Day one he and (Vice President-elect) Kamala Harris are gonna get to work to make that vision a reality. So honored to be part of this team..."
Patel joins a long list of Indian Americans tapped to be a part of the Biden-Harris administration.
Vivek Murthy has been tapped to serve as US Surgeon General, a post the research scientist held between 2014 and 2017. Maju Varghese, who steered election campaign, has been named as the executive director for Biden's inauguration on Jan. 21, 2021. Meanwhile, Neera Tanden has been named as the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Two other Indian Americans were named to head committees in charge of the transition to the new administration: Arun Majumdar for the Department of Energy and Kiran Ahuja for the Office of Personnel Management. In addition, 19 Indian Americans were appointed to the various transition teams and two others, Atul Gawande and Celine Gounder, to the Covid-19 task force.
Priya Singh was the first Indian American in the White House Press and Communication wing. She was White House Press Assistant from Jan 2009 to May 2010 in the Obama administration. Another Indian American, Raj Shah, served as the White House Deputy Press Secretary and Deputy Assistant to the President from 2017 to 2019 under the Trump administration.
Another Indian-American Bharat Ramamurti has been named as deputy director for the National Economic Council for Financial Reform and Consumer Protection. The announcement was made as Biden announced additional members of the National Economic Council (NEC). Besides Ramamurti, Joelle Gamble has been appointed as special assistant to the President for Economic Policy and David Kamin, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council.
