White House Announces Additional Staff

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday announced the appointments of additional White House staff who will serve in the Office of Administration, White House Counsel’s Office, Office of Legislative Affairs, Office of Management and Administration, White House Military Office, Office of Presidential Correspondence, and Speechwriting.

The White House says the new staff bring a breadth of talent, diverse experience, and steadfast dedication to the administration and will play key roles in tackling the crises facing the country.

Office of Administration and Office of Management and Administration

Faisal Amin, Deputy Director of Management and Administration and the Office of Administration

Faisal Amin was most recently on the Vetting Operations team and on the Executive Office of the President Management and Administration Agency Review Team on the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to the transition, he served as an assistant general counsel for Appropriations Law at the United States Government Accountability Office. Amin served in several roles during the Obama-Biden administration, including as director of Administration and associate counsel for Fiscal Law in the Office of the Vice President, as chief financial officer of the Executive Office of the President, and as deputy chief of staff in the Office of the Vice President.  Originally from California, he earned his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley, and his law degree at the University of Arizona. He lives in Maryland with his wife and two sons.

Dan Jacobson, General Counsel for the Office of Administration

Before joining the Biden-Harris administration, Daniel Jacobson was an attorney at Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C. where he focused on voting rights litigation. Jacobson previously served as an associate counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office during the Obama-Biden administration. Following law school, Jacobson served as a law clerk for the Honorable A. Wallace Tashima on the Ninth Circuit and the Honorable Naomi Reice Buchwald in the Southern District of New York. Originally from New York, Jacobson is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Yale University.  

Dana Rosenzweig, Deputy Director of Management and Administration for Operations

Before joining the Biden-Harris administration, Dana Rosenzweig was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company, where she led large-scale change management programs focused on leadership and development training and strategic operations. Prior to that, she served in the Obama-Biden administration as director of Administration for the Office of the Vice President. Originally from Pennsylvania, Rosenzweig is a graduate of Yale University and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

White House Counsel’s Office

Alicia O’Brien, Senior Counsel

Alicia O’Brien served at the Department of Justice as an associate deputy attorney general in the office of Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legislative Affairs during the Obama-Biden administration. In these roles, she managed the Department’s responses to congressional oversight, prepared senior officials for congressional hearings, and played a key role in the Senate confirmation process for presidentially appointed Department nominees. Before joining the Biden-Harris administration, O’Brien most recently was a partner at King & Spalding LLP in Washington, D.C. Originally from northern Ohio, O’Brien is a graduate of the University of Maryland and American University Washington College of Law. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and two daughters.

Office of Legislative Affairs

Jonathan Black, Special Assistant to the President and Senate Legislative Affairs Liaison

Jonathan Black served as a senior policy advisor to U.S. Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico on energy and environmental issues from 2013-2021. Prior to that, he served as a professional staff member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Democratic Staff for Chairman Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and held a variety of other positions on the Committee since 2001. Originally from Long Island, N.Y., Black is a graduate of the University of Richmond, Va. and has an M.A. from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Elizabeth Jurinka, Special Assistant to the President and Senate Legislative Affairs Liaison

Elizabeth Jurinka most recently served as chief health advisor to Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and the Senate Finance Committee. During her time on the Committee, Jurinka oversaw passage of several major health care bills including the repeal of the Sustainable Growth Rate, the longest CHIP extension since the program’s enactment, and chronic care reform; and led the development of arguments and strategy against several attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Jurinka spearheaded negotiations with the Committee Republicans on prescription drug pricing reform, resulting in Senate Finance Committee passage of the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act. Prior to her 10 years in the Senate, she worked for Rep. Melissa L. Bean of Illinois. Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Maryland, Elizabeth graduated from University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in government and received her master’s in government from Johns Hopkins University. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and two daughters.

Chad Metzler, Special Assistant to the President and Senate Legislative Affairs Liaison

Chad Metzler was legislative director for U.S. Sen. Angus King. Before that he was the staff director for the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging, and served as legislative director for U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl. Metzler is a native of Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Chicago and earned an M.A. in Security Policy at George Washington University’s Elliot School of International Affairs.

Jim Secreto, Special Assistant to the President and Director of Confirmations

Jim Secreto previously served as counsel to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, chief counsel to the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, and chief investigative counsel to then-Ranking Member Tom Carper on Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. During the Obama-Biden administration, he served as deputy associate counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office and in various roles at the U.S. Department of Energy. Born and raised in Michigan, Secreto is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Georgetown University Law Center, and the Harvard Kennedy School.

White House Military Office

Maju Varghese, Director of the White House Military Office

Maju Varghese most recently served as executive director of the Presidential Inaugural Committee. Prior to that, Varghese served as chief operating officer and senior advisor on the Biden campaign from the primaries through the general election. In the Obama-Biden administration, Varghese served in multiple roles, including assistant to the president for Management and Administration and special assistant to the president and deputy director of Advance.  Varghese has also served as a senior advisor at Dentons, chief operating officer at the Hub Project and as an associate at Wade Clark Mulcahy in New York. The son of immigrants from Kerala, India, Varghese was born in New York City and raised in Elmont, N.Y.. Varghese is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the Maurice A. Dean School of Law at Hofstra University.

Office of Presidential Correspondence

Eva Kemp, Director of Presidential Correspondence

Eva Kemp was vice president of Program at SKDK managing the direct mail program for the Biden for President campaign. Prior to her role on the campaign, she served as an IE political desk at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and deputy states paid media director for Mike Bloomberg 2020. Kemp was previously the Louisiana State director at Democrats for Education Reform. She also served as a legislative assistant for United States Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and director of Policy and Planning at the Louisiana Department of Education and Recovery School District. Born in Hammond, La., Kemp is a graduate of Louisiana State University.

Speechwriting

Amber Macdonald, Senior Presidential Speechwriter

Amber Macdonald served as Dr. Jill Biden’s speechwriter during the Biden-Harris campaign. Prior to joining the campaign, she ran her own speechwriting shop, writing for Dr. Biden and other high-profile clients. During the Obama-Biden administration, Macdonald served as senior advisor and director of Speechwriting for HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell and deputy director of Speechwriting for HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Before joining the administration, she was communications director to Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington, political director for Howard Berman for Congress, and a field representative for California Rep. Bob Blumenfield. Macdonald began her political career working on reproductive health and local political campaigns in Los Angeles, Calif. Originally from Indiana, she graduated from Hanover College with a B.A. in Theatre and English. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and twin daughters.

Jeff Nussbaum, Senior Presidential Speechwriter

Jeff Nussbaum most recently served as a partner at the speechwriting and strategy firm West Wing Writers. He traveled with President Biden during the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign and previously wrote for Vice President Al Gore and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Nussbaum helped oversee speechwriting operations for the 2020 Democratic National Convention and was involved in the past six Democratic conventions. Nussbaum has co-authored books with James Carville and former Sen. Bob Graham and has served as a creative consultant for the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Nussbaum was raised in Weston, Mass. and is a graduate of Brown University. He is the father of two daughters.