President-elect Joe Biden announced Wednesday that a former vice presidential chief of staff and Obama-era Ebola outbreak response chief will serve as the incoming White House chief of staff.
Ronald Klain, 59, will be the president-elect’s closest formal adviser and wrangler of executive priorities once the Biden administration takes office Jan. 20, 2021.
“Ron has been invaluable to me over the many years that we have worked together, including as we rescued the American economy from one of the worst downturns in our history in 2009 and later overcame a daunting public health emergency in 2014,” the president-elect said in a statement, NPR reported.
“I’m honored by the President-elect’s confidence and will give my all to lead a talented and diverse team in a Biden-Harris WH,” Klain said on Twitter Wednesday night of his White House appointment.
His curriculum vitae
Klain is no newcomer to Washington politics. He has served in several Democratic presidential administrations and has a decadeslong pedigree in law and government management.
After graduating from Georgetown University in 1983 and a brief stint as a Senate campaign manager, Klain went on to Harvard Law School where he was the editor of the Harvard Law Review.
According to The New York Times, the incoming chief of staff has had an array of notable D.C. legal and political positions:
- Chief of staff to then-Vice President Joe Biden
- Chief of staff to former Vice President Al Gore
- Chief of staff to former Attorney General Janet Reno
- Associate White House counsel in charge of judicial nominations
- Staff director for the Senate Democratic Leadership Committee
- Chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee
- Law clerk for Supreme Court Associate Justice Byron R. White
Klain has been a part of the “selection or confirmation” of eight Supreme Court justices, according to the Administrative Conference of the United States — an independent government body that seeks to improve federal administrative process and procedure.
In 2014, Klain was appointed by President Barack Obama to lead the White House’s domestic and international Ebola outbreak response, experience that will be needed as President-elect Biden plans a more aggressive response by his administration to the global coronavirus pandemic.
“I chose Ron for a reason: I have known him to be nothing less than an effective, dedicated and tireless manager and leader,” Obama said in early 2015 after Klain’s tenure as Ebola czar, as reported by The Hoya — Georgetown University’s student newspaper. “And those traits have been on full display since October, as Ron has helped marshal our whole-of-government approach to tackle Ebola at the source in West Africa and to fortify our preparedness here at home.”
Klain had also served as a lecturer at Harvard Law School and the Georgetown Department of Government.
A family man
Born into a Jewish household in Indianapolis, Klain is married to Monica Medina — a U.S. Army veteran who has served in senior government and academic positions. The couple have three adult children.
Medina was a principal deputy undersecretary and general counsel at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and, at one time, oversaw the U.S. Department of Justice’s environmental division as a deputy associate attorney general. She is a Georgetown alumnus — like Klain — and is an honors graduate from Columbia Law School.
“Thanks to everyone for all the good wishes! Thanks most of all to Ronald Klain for taking me along for the ride! And what a ride it has been! I know Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made a fantastic choice!” Medina said of her husband on Twitter Wednesday night.