The time is finally here; Donald Trump is out of the White House, and Joe Biden is President of the United States. I have to admit, I’m very excited about this. But don’t worry, I’m not going to write an article about how exciting it is to see Trump out of the White House, and I’m not going to write an article celebrating the Democratic Party’s control of Congress and the Presidency – there are already plenty of those out there. Instead, I am going to introduce some of the badass women in the Biden administration. By no means are they the only women in the administration, but here are fourteen women who will be part of the Biden administration.
- Kamala Harris – Vice President
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As a woman going into politics, nothing made me happier during the 2021 Presidential Inauguration than seeing Kamala Harris sworn in as Vice President of the United States. Harris is the first female, first African American, and first Asian American Vice President. I can only hope that little girls watching the inauguration saw that nothing is impossible; one day they could be the Vice President, or maybe even the President. I am excited to see what Harris can accomplish in her term as Vice President, and I to one day see her inaugurated as President of the United States.
- Dr. Jill Biden – First Lady
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Dr. Jill Biden is the wife of President Joe Biden, but she has accomplished too much on her own to only be associated with her husband. In addition to taking on the duties of First Lady, Dr. Biden plans to continue working as a writing professor at Northern Virginia Community College. She dedicated most of her life to teaching, and she has no plan to stop. It excites me to see a First Lady choosing to keep her job – it reminds me of Hillary Clinton.
- Deb Haaland – Secretary of the Interior
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Deb Haaland previously served as U.S. Representative of New Mexico’s first district. She was one of the first Native Americans to ever serve in the U.S. Congress. Now, she will serve as Secretary of the Interior, and she will be the U.S.’s first Native American Cabinet secretary.
- Gina Raimondo – Secretary of Commerce
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Gina Raimondo was elected governor of Rhode Island in 2014, after serving as General Treasurer of Rhode Island, and she will now be the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. She was Rhode Island’s first female governor, acting as a national leader through the coronavirus pandemic.
- Marcia Fudge – Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
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Before being nominated as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Marcia Fudge served as U.S. Representative of Ohio’s eleventh district. As Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Fudge will take on the growing housing crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
- Jennifer Granholm – Secretary of Energy
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Chosen to run the Energy Department, Jennifer Granholm previously served two terms as governor of Michigan. As governor, Granholm had experience with the auto industry, which will help achieve Biden’s goals of rolling out more electric vehicles and charging stations for them.
- Neera Tanden – Director of the Office of Management and Budget
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Neera Tanden is CEO of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. She also served in Bill Clinton’s administration, Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, and Barack Obama’s administration. Tanden will be the first woman of color to serve as Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
- Dr. Janet Yellen – Secretary of the Treasury
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After years of serving as a Distinguished Fellow in Residence in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, one of the U.S.’s largest think tanks, Dr. Janet Yellen will serve as Secretary of the Treasury in Biden’s cabinet. Not enough women go into careers in economics, so it is quite exciting to see Dr. Yellen serve as the U.S.’s first female Treasury Secretary.
- Avril Haines – Director of National Intelligence
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Avril Haines was the first Biden Cabinet nominee confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Haines is the first female Director of National Intelligence, and she will lead the agency that coordinates all seventeen agencies and organizations that make up the intelligence community. Haines formerly worked on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the White House National Security Council under Barack Obama.
- Katherine Tai – United States Trade Representative
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Biden’s nominee for United States Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, has experience with international trade. In addition to serving as a trade lawyer for Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, Tai worked in Barack Obama’s administration to fight trade complaints against China.
- Isabel Guzman – Administrator of the Small Business Administration
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Isabel Guzman has much experience in small business administration. In Barack Obama’s administration, she served as deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to the administrator at the Small Business Administration. Later, she served as director of California’s Office of the Small Business Advocate.
- Linda Thomas-Greenfield – United States Ambassador to the United Nations
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Linda Thomas-Greenfield has a long career in foreign service; this includes thirty-five years as director general of the Foreign Service, ambassadorships, and diplomat in the Bureau of African Affairs. After being pushed out of the Foreign Service department by Donald Trump’s Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Thomas-Greenfield is now returning to a role in international diplomacy.
- Dr. Cecilia Rouse – Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
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Dr. Cecilia Rouse, Biden’s nominee for Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, has a long career in economics. She worked on Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors before, and she taught at Princeton University for years before becoming the dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.
- Dr. Rachel Levine – Assistant Secretary of Health
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Being a Pennsylvania resident, seeing Dr. Rachel Levine nominated as Assistant Secretary of Heath was bittersweet. Levine previously served as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health, and I relied on her for information as the pandemic progressed. I’m sad to see her go, but I can’t wait to see her in her new role. I am not only excited to see Levine in this role as a proud Pennsylvanian. Levine is the first transgender federal official to ever be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, a very exciting step for the transgender community.
I am excited to see these women in positions of power, and I hope we will see even more of them in the future!
HCXO, Riley
Information from whitehouse.gov, brookings.edu, cnn.com, huffpost.com, nga.org, politico.com, npr.org, princeton.edu, and bloomberg.com