Maya Harris is the sister of CA Attorney General Kamala Harris.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Former Senator and Secretary of State and current Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has named Indian American Maya Harris to lead a team of senior policy advisors who will be charged with molding her presidential campaign agenda.
Harris, who is 46-year-old and the younger sister of Californian attorney general and senatorial hopeful Kamala Harris, has a background in human rights, having served as the vice president of Democracy, Rights, and Justice at the Ford Foundation, according to The Hindustan Times. There, she led a team that promoted effective governance, democracy and human rights around the world.
She was also a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, according to Politico.
Harris will head up a team comprised of Ann O’Leary, a former legislative director to Clinton when she was in the Senate; and Jake Sullivan, a top aide to Clinton while she was Secretary of State and a former national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.
“The announcement of a policy team heavy on expertise in foreign policy, children and families, and global human rights is an early indication of the kinds of policy themes she could emphasize as she launches her campaign,” said Politico’s analysis. All are issues Clinton has promoted in her recent speeches and in her book, “Hard Choices.”
Harris went to Berkeley followed by Stanford law school. The Hindustan Times disclosed she considers her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a cancer researcher who came to the US from Chennai in 1960, as a major influence, as well as her elder sister.