NEERA TANDEN
Legislative Director for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY). Before that Neera was the senior vice president for Domestic Policy for the Center for American Progress. Neera was the issues director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She has also served as the senior policy advisor to the Chancellor of the New York City Schools, Harold Levy. Prior to that she was the deputy campaign manager and policy director for the senate campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Neera also served in the White House under President Clinton as the senior policy advisor to the First Lady and associate director in the Domestic Policy Council. She graduated from UCLA and received her law degree from Yale Law School.
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Tanden began her political ascent by volunteering for then Massachusetts Governor Mike Dukakis’ presidential campaign in 1988. At age 18, she was a precinct leader and she encouraged all of the young people in the audience to get similarly involved no matter how young they were. Tanden went on to be a press aide for the Clinton/Gore campaign in 1992 and this enabled her to work for the Clinton administration. Before joining the DCCC she was deputy campaign manager for the Hillary Clinton for Senate race, where she also helped coordinate policy for the then-candidate.
Tanden addressed many questions, including queries on balancing family and political life as a South Asian-American woman. “Well the White House is just a pressure-filled environment for anyone. There is so much scrutiny. Hillary’s office, where I worked, was very supportive of women in this balancing act. She was a mother too and that made her very compassionate about such issues... very few people left Hillary’s staff.”