Gautam Raghavan is an Indian American political advisor who is the director of the

White House Presidential Personnel Office The White House Presidential Personnel Office (PPO, sometimes written as Office of Presidential Personnel) is the White House Office tasked with vetting new appointees. Its offices are on the first floor of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building ...

. Raghavan previously served as the associate director of the

Office of Public Liaison The White House Office of Public Engagement is a unit of the White House Office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Under the administration of President Barack Obama, it was called the White House Office of Publ ...

in the Obama administration.

Early life and education

Raghavan was born in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and raised in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University in 2004 and attended the Graduate School of Political Management at

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...

from 2004 until 2006.

Career

Raghavan served as the associate director of the

under

President Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

, acting as a liaison to both the

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities from 2011 to 2017. As the associate director Raghavan facilitated conversation on issues impacting both the LGBT and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, including

marriage equality Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

, workplace nondiscrimination,

transgender rights A transgender person is someone whose gender identity is inconsistent or not culturally associated with the sex they were assigned at birth and also with the gender role that is associated with that sex. They may have, or may intend to establi ...

, bullying prevention,

immigration reform Immigration reform is change to the current immigration policy of a country. In its strict definition, ''reform'' means "to change into an improved form or condition, by amending or removing faults or abuses". In the political sense, "immigration ...

, hate violence, and access to health care. It was during Raghavan's tenure that President Obama spoke out in favor of marriage equality, and later signed an

executive order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of t ...

barring federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. He has also worked for the Progressive Majority, the 2008 Obama campaign, the Democratic National Committee, the

Gill Foundation The Gill Foundation is an American philanthropic foundation based in Denver, Colorado. It is one of the largest funders of efforts to secure full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the United States. The founda ...

, and the

U.S. Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...

as the outreach lead for its "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" Working Group. Outside of government, Raghavan has worked as a consultant for progressive organizations including the

Biden Foundation The Biden Foundation was a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the United States tax code that existed from 2017 to 2019. It was established by former vice president of the United States Joe Biden and former second lady Jill Biden w ...

and IMPACT, the Indian American Impact Project & Fund, the latter being an initiative that supports Indian Americans in politics. He was also founding executive director of IMPACT, 2016–18. Raghavan was the editor of ''West Wingers: Stories from the Dream Chasers, Change Makers, and Hope Creators Inside the Obama White House'', which includes personal accounts by eighteen Obama Administration staffers. From December 2018 to July 2020, Raghavan was the chief of staff for Congresswoman

Pramila Jayapal Pramila Jayapal ( ; born September 21, 1965) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she represents most of Seattle, as well as some suburban areas of King County. Jayapal ...

. In June 2020, Biden selected Raghavan to serve on his presidential transition team.

Personal life

Raghavan is openly gay. He lives with his husband Andy, and their daughter in

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raghavan, Gautam Living people American politicians of Indian descent Biden administration personnel Gay politicians Indian emigrants to the United States American LGBT people of Asian descent Indian LGBT politicians American LGBT rights activists LGBT appointed officials in the United States Obama administration personnel Stanford University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)