Kiran Ahuja

Kiran Arjandas Ahuja (born June 17, 1971)[2][3][4] is an American lawyer and activist who served as the Chief of Staff to the Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management from 2015 to 2017.[5] She assumed that position after serving for six years as the director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. An India-born American, she has also been a lawyer with the United States Department of Justice and a founding director of a non-profit, the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum. In 2017, she became the Chief Executive Officer of Philanthropy Northwest.[6]

Kiran Ahuja
Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
In office
December 2009 â€“ November 2015
PresidentBarack Obama
Succeeded byDoua Thor[1]
Personal details
Born
Kiran Arjandas Ahuja

(1971-06-17) June 17, 1971
Political partyDemocratic
EducationSpelman College (BA)
University of Georgia (JD)

Early life and education

Ahuja was raised in Savannah, Georgia and she and her family were immigrants from India.[7] She started college at Emory University, but quickly transferred to Spelman College and then went on to the University of Georgia School of Law, earning her Juris Doctor degree in 1998.[8]

Career

After school, she went to work for the Department of Justice. Ahuja later recalled that she found the pace of the DOJ to be too slow for her and left to create change through non-profit work.[9]

Ahuja was the founding executive director of the National Asian Pacific Women's Forum (NAPAWF).[10] She worked there from 2003 to 2008, during which time she turned the NAPAWF from a volunteer organization, to one with paid staff.[7]

Ahuja was appointed as the executive director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI) on December 14, 2009.[7] In this capacity, she has continued to work towards helping Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) access services from the United States federal government.[11] Her work has included increasing health care for AAPI and also inter-agency cooperation between WHIAAPI and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to "address exposure to health toxins by nail salon workers," many of whom are Asian American.[11] Other initiatives have been public to private, such as translating essential information about the Gulf Oil Spill for AAPI individuals still struggling with understanding English.[11] Ahuja has also shared her own experiences, helping to "destigmatize depression and suicide when she opened up about her brother's suicide."[12] Reappropriate stated that it was an important step towards ending "the stigma against mental illness among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.[12]

On June 6, 2014, Kiran Ahuja, as the Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, honored Yuri Kochiyama, on the White House website for dedicating "her life to the pursuit of social justice, not only for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community but all communities of color."[13]

She is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.[14]

In November 2020, Ahuja was named a member of the Joe Biden presidential transition Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to the Office of Personnel Management.[15]

References
  1. "Doua Thor - Executive Director". Archived from the original on 2016-01-01. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
  2. "Ms. Kiran Arjandas Ahuja Lawyer Profile on Martindale.com". www.martindale.com. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
  3. Hubbell, Martindale (March 2001). Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, U.S. Government Lawyers, Law Schools (Volume 4 - 2001). Martindale-Hubbell. ISBN 9781561604395.
  4. United States Public Records, 1970-2009 (Florida, 2008-2009)
  5. LinkedIn Profile
  6. CEO bio
  7. "Kiran Ahuja, Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders—Biography". U.S. Department of Education. 16 March 2010. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  8. "Five Questions with Kiran Ahuja". Asian American Press. 2 March 2014. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  9. Khandhar, Parag (2007). "Building a New Paradigm for the Women's Movement: Spotlight on Kiran Ahuja". The Modern American. 3 (2). Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  10. "Kiran Ahuja, Founding Executive Director of NAPAWF, Appointed to Lead the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders" (PDF). National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum. November 2009. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  11. Singh, Tejinder (4 September 2012). "AAPI Chief Kiran Ahuja Outlines White House Efforts to Involve Communities". Indian American Times. Archived from the original on 12 September 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  12. "Obama Advisor & Director of WH Initiative on #AAPI Shares Family History of Mental Illness". Reappropriate. 8 August 2014. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  13. "Honoring the Legacy of Yuri Kochiyama". whitehouse.gov. 2014-06-06. Retrieved 2018-02-10.
  14. "Kiran Ahuja". Huffington Post. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  15. "Agency Review Teams". President-Elect Joe Biden. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
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