Washington: For the first time in the history of United States, Joe Biden, President-elect has appointed a Muslim Palestinian- American as a senior member of White House staff.
Reema Dodin, who is currently a volunteer on the President-elect’s transition team, will take the post of deputy director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, alongside Shuwanza Goff. She was born in US to Jordanian-Palestinian parents.
As part of her volunteering efforts, she has led the Biden-Harris transition team’s engagement with members of the US Congress. She also currently serves as the deputy chief of staff and floor director to Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the Democratic whip in the US Senate.
Prior to this, Dodin served on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, among a number of other positions. She had not just campaign for Joe Biden but also for Barack Obama earlier.
She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is also a Truman National Security Fellow and a member of the Jenkins Hill Society – a group which supports and promotes women’s participation in politics.
Dodin has also campaigned for Palestinian rights for a long time. In 2001, during the second Palestinian intifada, she took part in a protest at UC Berkeley calling for the university to divest from Israel.