United States President, Joe Biden on Tuesday, 23 February nominated Indian-American Kiran Arjandas Ahuja to head the Office of Personnel and Management, a federal agency overlooking more than two million civil servants.
The former Obama administration-era veteran, Ahuja, 49-years-old, is a lawyer and civil rights activist and upon confirmation by the Senate would become the first Indian-American to occupy this high-profile post in a department that the former Donald Trump administration had tried to dismantle in the past, reported The Washington Post.
Ahuja will have a mandate to reverse former President Trump’s policies around civil service, which became deeply politicised during his term. Trump’s policies have cost many agencies top experts, a move that Biden pledges to reverse and revitalise the workforce, added the report.
Who is Kiran Ahuja?
Ahuja was born to Indian immigrants in Savannah, Georgia and graduated from Spelman College with a law degree from the University of Georgia.
She worked as a civil rights attorney for the Justice Department, and was the first to file a student racial harassment case. After completing her education, Ahuja founded a non-profit known as the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum and has over two decades of leadership experience in the non profit sector.
She worked as the Chief of Staff to Director of the US Office of Personnel Management from 2015 to 2017 and served under the Obama administration for six years on the White House Initiative for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Ahuja currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Philanthropy Northwest which functions as a regional cluster of six philanthropic institutions.
‘Ahuja Is A Wealth Of Experience’
“Kiran Ahuja brings a wealth of experience in federal personnel matters, and her record of advocacy on behalf of women of colour is reason for us to be optimistic that she will make it a priority to reverse the previous administration’s active undermining of diversity and inclusion efforts across the government,”, said Everett Kelley according to The Washington Post.
Kelley leads the largest union representing the workforce, and is the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees.
(With inputs from The Washington Post)
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