Evan Maureen Ryan (born April 18, 1971) is an American public servant currently serving as White House Cabinet Secretary in the administration of Joe Biden. She previously served as

Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs The Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs is the head of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, a bureau within the United States Department of State. The Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cul ...

(ECA) in the

Obama Administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...

(2013–2017) and was assistant for intergovernmental affairs and public liaison for then-

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

Joe Biden.

Early life and education

Ryan was born in 1971 in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Downto ...

, where she grew up in a middle-class family of

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the British ...

descent. She received

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

(BA) in political science from

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

. In May 2006, she received her Masters in International Public Policy from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

’s

School of Advanced International Studies The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., United States, with campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. It is consistently ranked one of the ...

Career

Ryan served under Secretary of State

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...

and worked in the Obama-Biden White House as Assistant to the Vice President and Special Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement from September 2013 to January 2017. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Ryan served as Deputy Campaign Manager for then Senator Biden's 2008 presidential campaign and also served on the Kerry's 2004 Presidential Campaign and Hillary Clinton's 2000 senatorial campaign. Ryan served in the Clinton White House, as Deputy Director of Scheduling for First Lady

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

and as Special Assistant to the First Lady's Chief of Staff. After leaving the White House in January 2017, she helped launch and lead

Axios Axios commonly refers to: * Axios (river), a river that runs through Greece and North Macedonia * ''Axios'' (website), an American news and information website Axios may also refer to: Brands and enterprises * Axios, a brand of suspension produ ...

, and served as its Executive Vice President. She has worked as a consultant for the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict and served as Deputy Chair for the governance track of the

Clinton Global Initiative The Clinton Foundation (founded in 2001 as the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, and renamed in 2013 as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. It was es ...

. She is currently a member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

. She was a Senior Advisor for the Biden-Harris transition team. In January 2021, she was appointed White House Cabinet Secretary.

Personal life

In 2002,

Antony Blinken Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962) is an American government official and diplomat serving as the 71st United States secretary of state since January 26, 2021. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and ...

and Evan Ryan were married in an interfaith ceremony officiated by a rabbi and a priest at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. Blinken, who served as

Deputy Secretary of State The deputy secretary of state of the United States is the principal deputy to the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state. The current deputy secretary of state is Wendy Ruth Sherman, serving since April 2021 under United States Secre ...

under

in the Obama administration, now serves as Secretary of State under President Biden. They have two children, including Lila Ryan Blinken, who was born on February 26, 2020.

References

External links

Profile
at

WhiteHouse.gov whitehouse.gov (also simply known as wh.gov) is the official website of the White House and is managed by the Office of Digital Strategy. It was launched on July 29, 1994 by the Clinton administration. The content of the website is in the ...

Wedding announcement
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', March 3, 2002 * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Evan 1971 births 21st-century American women American people of Irish descent American political women American women diplomats American diplomats Assistant Secretaries of State for Education and Culture Biden administration personnel Blinken family Boston College alumni Catholics from Virginia Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Living people Obama administration personnel People from Alexandria, Virginia Virginia Democrats