Elizabeth Wilkins | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2021 | |
| Born | Elizabeth Wood Claytor Wilkins 1982or1983(age 40–41) |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupations |
|
| Political party | Democratic |
| Parents | |
Elizabeth Wood Claytor Wilkins (born 1982or1983 [1] ) is an American lawyer serving as the director of the office of policy planning at the Federal Trade Commission. From 2021 to 2022, she was Senior Advisor to Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff under President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2023.
Wilkins grew up in Southwest DC. [2] She is the daughter of Patricia A. King, a law professor at Georgetown, and Roger Wilkins, a history professor at George Mason University. He was a member of the group at The Washington Post that received a 1972 Pulitzer Prize for reporting on Watergate. [1] Her great uncle is Roy Wilkins, the civil rights figure and leader of the NAACP. [3]
Wilkins graduated from Sidwell Friends School, [2] which was followed by an undergraduate degree from Yale University. [4] Later, she attended Yale Law School, where she received a Juris Doctor degree in 2013. [4]
After earning her undergraduate degree, Wilkins worked for the Service Employees International Union where she focused in labor policy. [4] She also did some work towards assisting tenants' organizations in The Bronx. [3]
She then worked for the Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign, moving to Chicago where the campaign was based. [3] She served multiple roles there including as a state field director for Michigan. [4] As such, she was the only black woman to serve as a director for a battleground state. [3]
From 2009 to 2010, she was an urban policy and economic opportunity adviser in the White House Domestic Policy Council. [4] In that capacity, she worked for Melody Barnes, the director of the council. [3]
After law school, she was a law clerk to Chief Judge Merrick B. Garland of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2013 to 2014, and then for Associate Justice Elena Kagan at the United States Supreme Court from 2014 to 2015. [4] [1] In 2015, she worked for Karl Racine, the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, where she assisted in starting a public-advocacy division at the office. [2]
She joined the senior leadership team of the Biden transition in the summer of 2020 working with the domestic and economic policy teams. [5]
From 2021 to 2022, she was Senior Advisor to Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff under President Joe Biden- from 2021 to 2023. In February 2022, she became the director of the office of policy planning at the Federal Trade Commission. [5] She picked that position because she thought the agency, as led by its new chair Lina Khan, would be a promising place at which to deal with economic injustice. [2] In her role she leads inquiries into such issues as antitrust, prescription-drug prices, and the baby-formula shortage. She has said that in her work she desires to "make people think twice about setting up a whole business model that is premised on extraction and exploitation" and to make "the government sensitive to the needs and wants of ordinary people." [2]
In 2013, she married Graham Lake, a lawyer. They have known each other since kindergarten. [6]
O'Melveny & Myers LLP is an American multinational law firm founded in Los Angeles, California in 1885. The firm employs approximately 740 lawyers and has offices in California, Washington, D.C., New York City, Beijing, Brussels, Hong Kong, London, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo.
Ronald Alan Klain is an American attorney, political consultant, and former lobbyist who served as White House chief of staff under President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2023.
TimothyShiou-Ming Wu is a Taiwanese-American legal scholar who served as Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy at the United States from 2021 to 2023. He is also a professor of law at Columbia University and a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. He is known legally and academically for significant contributions to antitrust and communications policy, coining the phrase "network neutrality" in his 2003 law journal article, Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination. In the late 2010s, Wu was a leading advocate for an antitrust lawsuit directed at the breakup of Facebook.
Bruce Reed is an American political advisor and non-profit administrator who was the president of the Broad Foundation. Prior to assuming that role in December 2013, he served as Chief of Staff to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and as CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). On December 22, 2020, it was announced that Reed would serve as a White House deputy chief of staff in the Biden administration, along with Jen O'Malley Dillon.
Catherine Mary Russell is an American attorney and political adviser who is the current Executive Director of UNICEF. Russell previously served as Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, and Chief of Staff to then-Second Lady of the United States Jill Biden.
Stephen Keith Benjamin is an American politician and businessman currently serving as the Director of the Office of Public Engagement for the Biden administration, and also as one of the senior advisors to President Biden since April 1, 2023. He previously served as the 70th mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, from July 2010 to January 2022. He was the first African American mayor in the city's history. Before serving as mayor, he worked in the Columbia metropolitan area as an attorney and served on various charitable organizations.
Reta Jo Lewis is an American attorney, former diplomat, and politician who is the president and chair of the Export–Import Bank of the United States.
Lisa Oudens Monaco is an American attorney, former federal prosecutor and national security official who has served as the 39th and current United States Deputy Attorney General since April 21, 2021. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Elaine Debra Kaplan is the chief judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims. She served as General Counsel of the United States Office of Personnel Management from 2009 to 2013, and as acting director of the office in 2013.
Danielle Gray is the former Assistant to the President, Cabinet Secretary, and a Senior Advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama. Previously, Gray served as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council and Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. Gray is currently executive vice president and global chief legal officer of Walgreen Boots Alliance.
Avril Danica Haines is an American lawyer and senior government official who serves as the director of national intelligence in the Biden administration. She is the first woman to serve in this role. Haines previously served as Deputy National Security Advisor and Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the Obama administration. Prior to her appointment to the CIA, she served as Deputy Counsel to the President for National Security Affairs in the Office of White House Counsel.
Lydia Kay Griggsby is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. She is a former Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims and Chief Counsel for Private and Information Policy for the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Florence Yu Pan is an American lawyer who serves as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia from 2021 to 2022 and a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia from 2009 to 2021.
Monica P. Medina is an American attorney and government official who previously served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs at the Department of State. Medina served as Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, deputy associate attorney general, and general counsel of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She was also the U.S. Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission. She is currently President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Kristen M. Clarke is an American attorney who has served as the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the United States Department of Justice since May 2021. Clarke previously served as president of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She also managed the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York State Attorney General's Office under Eric Schneiderman. In 2019, Clarke successfully represented Taylor Dumpson, the first African American woman student body president of American University, in her landmark case against white supremacists.
The presidential transition of Joe Biden began on November 7, 2020, and ended on January 20, 2021. Unlike previous presidential transitions, which normally take place during the roughly 10-week period between the election in the first week of November and the inauguration on January 20, Biden's presidential transition was shortened somewhat because the General Services Administration under the outgoing Trump administration did not recognize Biden as the "apparent winner" until November 23.
Sameera Fazili is an American attorney and public official who served as a deputy director of the National Economic Council in the Biden administration. A noted community development finance expert, Fazili previously served as Director of Engagement for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
Elizabeth Fowler is an American lawyer who is Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. She previously served under President Barack Obama at the National Economic Council. In 2022, she was included by Stat News on their list of leaders in the life sciences and she was elected a Member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Elizabeth Johnson Klein is an American lawyer serving as the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management since 2023. She was previously a senior counselor to the United States secretary of the interior with an emphasis was on water policy and climate change resilience.
Zayn Siddique is an American attorney and political advisor serving as the Principal Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council. From 2021 to 2022, he was Senior Advisor to Bruce Reed, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff under President Joe Biden.