Ferial Govashiri (born 1982/1983) is an

Iranian-American Iranian Americans are United States citizens or nationals who are of Iranian ancestry or who hold Iranian citizenship. Iranian Americans are among the most highly educated people in the United States. They have historically excelled in busine ...

political aide who served as the

Personal Secretary ''Personal Secretary'' is a 1938 American comedy film directed by Otis Garrett and written by Betty Laidlaw, Robert Lively and Charles Grayson. The film stars William Gargan, Joy Hodges, Andy Devine, Ruth Donnelly, Samuel S. Hinds and Frances ...

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Barack 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 U ...

at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

from May 2014 through January 20, 2017. Govashiri is currently Chief of Staff to the Chief Content Officer at

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

. Beginning in the summer of 2007, she worked on then-

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Barack Obama's presidential campaign in his Chicago headquarters in the department of Scheduling and Advance. Govashiri went on to work in the White House after the election. For the first five years of 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 ...

, Govashiri worked on the

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a na ...

(NSC) staff, first as a senior advisor to Ben Rhodes, the Deputy National Security Advisor and then as the Senior Advisor to the Chief of Staff and the Director of Visits at the NSC. She helped plan the President's foreign trips as well as foreign leaders' visits to the White House. She is fluent in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. She is an active member of the

Iranian American Women Foundation The Iranian American Women Foundation (IAWF) is an Iranian American national nonprofit membership organization. Members of all faiths, including Muslims, Jews, Christians and those of the Bahá'í faith, are involved in the organization. History ...

and has spoken at conferences on their behalf.

References

American politicians of Iranian descent California Democrats Living people Obama administration personnel American people of Iranian descent Personal secretaries to the President of the United States Place of birth missing (living people) University of California, Irvine alumni Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-gov-bio-stub