News Byte: Alumna Named to Biden White House Staff

Pictured: Karine Jean-Pierre (B.S. ’97) has been named President-Elect Joe Biden’s principal deputy press secretary. Credit: Wikipedia/WikiCommons.

New York Tech alumna Karine Jean-Pierre (B.S. ’97) has been named President-Elect Joe Biden’s principal deputy press secretary, one of four senior communications team appointments made recently, according to a December 1 article in The New York Times. 

Jean-Pierre served in the Obama White House and worked on President Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns. Also an alumna of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, she has held former roles that include chief public affairs officer for the advocacy group MoveOn and political analyst for NBC and MSNBC, among other past government and advocacy positions.

“She will bring a steadiness, an evenness,” said Leah Daughtry, a veteran Democratic strategist who was quoted in the article. “She also brings her own experience as the daughter of immigrants, as someone from the queer community, as someone who’s a New Yorker.”