President-elect Joe Biden seems to be following through on his promise to create an administration “looks like America,” appointing several women and people of color to positions in his first round of announced appointments, following Ron Klain, who was announced as the incoming Chief of Staff last week.
Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon will work under Klain as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff. Lousiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, will depart the House of Representatives to join the Biden administration as a senior adviser and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.
Other notable appointments include Dana Remus, the campaign’s top lawyer, who will serve as senior counsel to the president; Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the granddaughter of the farmworker leader César Chávez and one of Biden’s deputy campaign managers, who will be the director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs; and Annie Tomasini, Biden’s current traveling chief of staff, who will take over as director of Oval Office operations.
Longtime Biden advisers Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti will also join the White House as senior adviser and counsellor to the president.
“These diverse, experienced, and talented individuals demonstrate President-elect Biden’s commitment to building an administration that looks like America,” Biden’s transition team said in a statement. It then quoted Biden as saying: “America faces great challenges, and they bring diverse perspectives and a shared commitment to tackling these challenges and emerging on the other side a stronger, more united nation.”
