WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris announced additional members of the White House senior staff. These diverse, experienced, and talented individuals demonstrate that the president and vice president-elect are building an administration that looks like America and is ready to deliver results for working families on day one.
“These experienced individuals are joining my administration to carry out policies that will put our nation on a path to building back better than ever before. They are respected leaders whose values and priorities align with my own and who will dutifully execute their roles to serve the American people. Their dedication to overcoming the challenges facing our country are rooted in their diverse backgrounds and experiences, helping deliver the change America needs in these difficult times,” said President-elect Joe Biden.
“Our country is grappling with a pandemic, an economic crisis, a long-overdue reckoning on racial injustice, and a climate crisis. To meet these challenges, we need a team that reflects the very best of our nation. These public servants have the knowledge and experience to help us deliver on our commitment to build our country back better. And I look forward to working with them to usher in a brighter future for all Americans,” said Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
“We are building a White House staff to reflect the diversity of America in every sense. These individuals have a breadth of experience, and will bring a commitment to serving the American people each and every day. They will advance the bold agenda of President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris, creating a more just, equitable, and united nation,” said incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain.
Biographies of the appointees are listed below in alphabetical order:
Anne Filipic, Director of Management & Administration
Anne Filipic recently served as the Chief Program Officer and the Chief Operating Officer at the Obama Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, she led Enroll America, a national healthcare coalition designed to maximize the number of Americans who enroll and retain healthcare coverage through the Affordable Care Act. Filipic served as Deputy Director of Public Engagement in the Obama-Biden White House and Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Obama-Biden Administration. She also served as the Deputy Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee and on President Obama’s 2008 campaign. Originally from Ohio, Filipic is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis.
Ryan Montoya, Director of Scheduling & Advance
Ryan Montoya served as the Director of Scheduling & Advance for Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to joining the campaign, Montoya served as the Chief Technology Officer for the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. A veteran of both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns, Montoya served as an Advance Associate in the Obama-Biden Administration. Montoya served as a senior advisor on John Edwards for President in the 2008 election cycle and as Elizabeth Edwards Trip Director on John Kerry for President in 2004. During the Clinton Administration, he served in the Office of the Secretary at the Department of Energy. Montoya earned an MBA from Sacramento State University, an MA in International Relations from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and a BA in Government and International studies from University of Notre Dame.
Gautam Raghavan, Deputy Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel
Gautam Raghavan serves as Deputy Head of Presidential Appointments on the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to joining the transition, Raghavan served as Chief of Staff to U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Previously, Raghavan served as an Advisor to the Biden Foundation, and as Vice President of Policy for the Gill Foundation, one of the oldest and largest private foundations dedicated to the cause of LGBTQ equality. During the Obama-Biden Administration, Raghavan served in the White House as the liaison to the LGBTQ community as well as the Asian American & Pacific Islander community, and in the White House Liaison Office for the U.S. Department of Defense and as Outreach Lead for the Pentagon’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Working Group. A first-generation immigrant, Gautam was born in India, raised in Seattle, and graduated from Stanford University. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his husband and their daughter.
Vinay Reddy, Director of Speechwriting
Vinay Reddy serves as a speechwriter on the Biden-Harris Transition and served as Senior Advisor and Speechwriter for the Biden-Harris Campaign. He previously served as chief speechwriter to Vice President Biden in the second term of the Obama-Biden White House, after which, he worked as Vice President of Strategic Communications at the National Basketball Association. During the Obama-Biden Administration, he also served as senior speechwriter at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services, deputy speechwriter for the Obama-Biden reelection campaign, and speechwriter for his home state Senator, Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Reddy grew up in Dayton, Ohio, the middle of three sons in an immigrant family and is a product of Ohio public schools from kindergarten to Miami University to The Ohio State University College of Law. He currently lives in New York with his wife and their two daughters.
Bruce Reed, Deputy Chief of Staff
Bruce Reed was Vice President Joe Biden’s Chief of Staff from 2011 to 2013 and traveled with him for the past year and a half as a Senior Adviser to the Biden for President Campaign. Reed has spent 12 years working on domestic and economic policy in the White House, and served as President Clinton’s chief domestic policy adviser. He began his career as Senator Al Gore’s chief speechwriter and was deputy campaign manager for policy of the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign. For the past five years, Reed has been Co-Chair of the Aspen Institute’s Future of Work Initiative and CEO of Civic, a bipartisan social enterprise firm. As a Senior Adviser at Common Sense Media, he helped draft the 2018 California Consumer Privacy Act, the most far-reaching technology privacy law in American history. Reed has been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago and the University of Delaware, and has degrees from Princeton and Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He is a native of Idaho.
Elizabeth Wilkins, Senior Advisor to the Chief of Staff
Elizabeth Wilkins serves as the Senior Advisor to the Chief of Staff for the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to joining the transition, Wilkins served in various senior leadership roles at the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia (OAG), including Senior Counsel for Policy and Chief of Staff. Prior to joining OAG, Elizabeth served as a law clerk to Associate Justice Elena Kagan of the U.S. Supreme Court, and to then-Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Before law school, Elizabeth served as an urban policy and economic opportunity advisor in the Obama-Biden White House Domestic Policy Council; led field operations in Michigan for President Obama’s 2008 campaign; and worked as a political organizer for the Service Employees International Union. Wilkins is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School and lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, son and daughter.