At a time of disaster, Berkeley plan authorities be part of Biden administration

With the United States battling to cope with the coronavirus pandemic, an financial meltdown and a surge of domestic terrorism, a crew of leading authorities from UC Berkeley has been summoned to join the administration of incoming President Joe Biden.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are established to be inaugurated tomorrow in Washington, D.C., and the procedure of filling in administration leadership is nonetheless in its early levels. Already, while, 3 cabinet secretaries with Berkeley ties have been nominated — for the departments of Vitality, Homeland Safety and Treasury. Other Berkeley specialists have been nominated or appointed for important positions to enable guide legislative affairs, intergovernmental affairs and the Office environment of White Property Counsel.

The new administration will straight away be confronted with a press of difficulties and crises unprecedented in at the very least 75 years, and possibly since the Civil War. But Chancellor Carol Christ reported that Berkeley graduates and faculty are elite scholars who collectively have a long time of higher-degree government experience, and she expressed delight in the new appointees.

“Since its commencing, our university has produced leaders dedicated to community support,” reported Christ. “Like the campus community from which they arrive, these transform-makers are remarkably varied in terms of their origins, identities, perspectives and areas of know-how. I am self-assured they will help our nation consider on the problems and opportunities right before us.”

Among the Biden administration nominations and appointments announced so far:

Jennifer Granholm, secretary of the Office of Power

A two-phrase governor of Michigan, Granholm is an skilled in the coverage and politics of electrical power, and at Berkeley’s Goldman College of Community Plan, she has taught classes in cleanse power, coverage innovation and communication.

“I’m so grateful to Berkeley and the Goldman School of Public Coverage for offering me the means to access fantastic exploration expertise and incredible grad pupils passionate about cleanse electricity,” said Granholm. “I will have their hopes for a clear vitality long run with me to Washington, and if I’m verified, will target with zeal on deploying cleanse electricity in each and every pocket of the state, with an emphasis on communities that have been most difficult strike by financial, racial and environmental injustice.”

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Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Division of Homeland Security (DHS)

Mayorkas, who immigrated with his loved ones from Cuba, graduated from Berkeley in 1981 with a bachelor’s degree in record. He would be the 1st Latinx and immigrant chief of DHS, 1 of greatest domains in the federal governing administration.

He beforehand labored at DHS during the Obama administration as deputy secretary and also as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers. He also served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Central District of California, with a emphasis on white-collar crime.

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Janet Yellen, secretary of the Department of the Treasury

Yellen has been a trailblazing economist and an influential trainer dependent in the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

She would be the to start with lady ever to serve as Treasury secretary, and in the publish would engage in a important part in encouraging Biden tutorial the nation’s economic restoration from a pandemic that has remaining hundreds of thousands unemployed and fiscally at risk. She was the 1st girl to serve as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, below President Invoice Clinton, and the initial female to chair the Federal Reserve, appointed by President Barack Obama.

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Adewale “Wally” Adeyemo, deputy treasury secretary

Adeyemo was born in Gbongan, a big town in Nigeria’s Osun state, and was a baby when his mother and father emigrated with their 3 small children to the U.S. He graduated from Berkeley with a bachelor’s diploma in political science in 2004, following serving as president of the Connected Pupils of the College of California.

Adeyemo ascended swiftly to a collection of influential appointments. He joined the Obama administration in 2010 as chief of staff members for the new Purchaser Economic Defense Bureau. Later on, he would be named deputy main of employees for the Treasury Division, assistant secretary for intercontinental marketplaces and enhancement at the Treasury, and deputy director of the National Economic Council. Most not too long ago, he has been president of the Obama Foundation.

“Public support is about providing hope by the dim moments and producing positive that our economic system operates not just for the wealthy, but for the tough-operating folks who make it operate,” Adeyemo wrote in a modern tweet.

Public company is about presenting hope as a result of the dark occasions and generating positive that our financial state is effective not just for the rich, but for the difficult-operating persons who make it operate.

As Deputy Treasury Secretary, I glimpse forward to encouraging us create back our overall economy much better.

— Wally Adeyemo (@wallyadeyemo) November 30, 2020

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Julie Chavez Rodriguez, director of Intergovernmental Affairs

Chavez Rodriguez, born in Delano, California, graduated from Berkeley in 2000 with a diploma in Latin American experiments. She rose as a result of a array of substantial-level political administration and coverage positions, and in the Obama White Home led engagement with leaders in the LGBTQ, Asian American Pacific Islander, Latinx, veterans, youth, labor and other communities.

Most not too long ago, she served as nationwide political director and touring chief of workers for Harris’ presidential campaign, and then as deputy marketing campaign supervisor for the Biden-Harris marketing campaign. She is the granddaughter of César Chávez, the legendary labor organizer and co-founder of the Countrywide Farm Personnel Association.

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Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo, affiliate counsel in the Office environment of White Residence Counsel

Born in Nigeria, Olorunnipa Badejo graduated from Berkeley Regulation in 2007. In the course of the Obama administration, she labored in the U.S. Office of Justice and served as ethics counsel at the Office environment of White Dwelling Counsel.

She most a short while ago has been general counsel for the U.S. Household of Representatives Decide on Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.

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Caroline McKay, main of employees to White House Counsel Dana Remus and deputy associate counsel

When at Berkeley Law, McKay served as a law clerk on the Democratic workers of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She obtained her legislation degree in 2020 and served as team counsel for the Biden-Harris marketing campaign. She previously was a member of the founding staff of Shield Democracy and, in the Obama administration, was a lawful assistant in the Business of White Residence Counsel.

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Reema Dodin, deputy director of the White House Business office of Legislative Affairs

Dodin, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, graduated from Berkeley in 2002 with a degree in political science and economics. She served most just lately as deputy chief of staff and flooring director for the office of U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Richard Durbin.

Dodin is the co-creator of Inside of Congress: A Manual for Navigating the Politics of the Property and Senate Floors (Brookings Establishment Push, 2017).

A quantity of other Berkeley faculty members have played roles powering the scenes on the Biden-Harris changeover team, encouraging to discover candidates for essential administration appointments.

Public provider has been a central aim of the Berkeley campus since the College of California was established in 1868, and alongside with instructing and study, it is a main element in the UC’s mission.

Given that 1895, eight graduates of Berkeley or its regulation university have served as governors of the California. One of them, Earl Warren, went on to turn into main justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Numerous of the groundbreaking girls in California political history had Berkeley ties.