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Kiran Ahuja

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Kiran Ahuja
Official portrait, 2021
Director of the Office of Personnel Management
In office
June 24, 2021 – May 6, 2024
PresidentJoe Biden
DeputyRob Shriver
Preceded byDale Cabaniss
Succeeded byRob Shriver (acting)
Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
In office
December 2009 – November 2015
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byJimmy D. Lee
Succeeded byDoua Thor
Personal details
Born
Kiran Arjandas Ahuja

(1971-06-17) June 17, 1971 (age 53)
India
Political partyDemocratic
EducationEmory University
Spelman College (BA)
University of Georgia (JD)

Kiran Arjandas Ahuja (born June 17, 1971)[1][2][3] is an American attorney and activist who served as the director of the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM). She served as the chief of staff to the OPM director from 2015 to 2017.[4] She assumed that position after serving for six years as the director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. An Indian-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 CEO of Philanthropy Northwest.[5]

Ahuja's nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 22, 2021, by a vote of 51–50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie.[6] She was sworn in on June 24, 2021.[7]

Early life and education

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Ahuja was raised in Savannah, Georgia and she and her family were immigrants from India.[8] 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.[9]

Career

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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.[10]

Ahuja was the founding executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF).[11] She worked there from 2003 to 2008, during which time she turned the NAPAWF from a volunteer organization, to one with paid staff.[8]

Ahuja was appointed as the executive director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) on December 14, 2009.[8] In this capacity, she has continued to work towards helping Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) access services from the United States federal government.[12] Her work has included increasing health care for AAPI and also inter-agency cooperation between WAAPI and the Environmental Protection Agency to "address exposure to health toxins by nail salon workers," many of whom are Asian American.[12] 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.[12] Ahuja has also shared her own experiences, helping to "destigmatize depression and suicide when she opened up about her brother's suicide."[13] Reappropriate stated that it was an important step towards ending "the stigma against mental illness among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.[13]

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."[14]

She is also a regular contributor to HuffPost.[15]

Biden administration

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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.[16] On February 23, 2021, President Biden nominated Ahuja to the position of OPM Director.[17][18] She was confirmed to the position on June 22, 2021, by a Senate vote of 51–50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.[19] Republican senators were opposed to Ahuja's statement in June 2020 following the murder of George Floyd. Ahuja wrote, "You can’t be a true ally to Black communities until you take it upon yourself to understand our racialized history in its most intimate and heinous forms...and learn, as I did, that all forms of discrimination flow from the subjugation of Black and Indigenous people."[6]

In April 2024, it was announced that Ahuja would step down due to health concerns and a death in her family.[20]

References

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  1. ^ "Ms. Kiran Arjandas Ahuja Lawyer Profile on Martindale.com". www.martindale.com. Retrieved November 29, 2020.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ United States Public Records, 1970-2009 (Florida, 2008-2009)
  4. ^ LinkedIn Profile
  5. ^ "CEO bio". Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved November 29, 2019.
  6. ^ a b Epstein, Reid J. (June 22, 2021). "The Senate confirms Kiran Ahuja, Biden's nominee to run the Office of Personnel Management". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 23, 2021.
  7. ^ U.S. Office of Personnel Management [@usopm] (June 24, 2021). ""It is the honor and privilege of my professional career to once again return to public service."" (Tweet). Retrieved June 26, 2021 – via Twitter.
  8. ^ a b c "Kiran Ahuja, Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders—Biography". U.S. Department of Education. March 16, 2010. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  9. ^ "Five Questions with Kiran Ahuja". Asian American Press. March 2, 2014. Archived from the original on February 24, 2016. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  10. ^ Khandhar, Parag (2007). "Building a New Paradigm for the Women's Movement: Spotlight on Kiran Ahuja". The Modern American. 3 (2). Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  11. ^ "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. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 11, 2015. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  12. ^ a b c Singh, Tejinder (September 4, 2012). "AAPI Chief Kiran Ahuja Outlines White House Efforts to Involve Communities". Indian American Times. Archived from the original on September 12, 2015. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  13. ^ a b "Obama Advisor & Director of WH Initiative on #AAPI Shares Family History of Mental Illness". Reappropriate. August 8, 2014. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  14. ^ "Honoring the Legacy of Yuri Kochiyama". whitehouse.gov. June 6, 2014. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  15. ^ "Kiran Ahuja". Huffington Post. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  16. ^ "Agency Review Teams". President-Elect Joe Biden. Archived from the original on August 28, 2022. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
  17. ^ "President Biden Announces Key Nominee for the Office of Personnel Management". The White House. February 23, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
  18. ^ "Biden turns to Obama administration veteran to lead key federal personnel agency". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  19. ^ "Harris casts fifth and sixth tiebreak votes to confirm OPM chief". Roll Call. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  20. ^ "Office of Personnel Management chief to leave Biden administration". Politico. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
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