OXONIANS | Top Posts in the Biden Administration

Three of President Biden’s twenty-four cabinet-level appointees are Oxonians—Gina Raimondo, Pete Buttigieg and Eric Lander.

Dr. Gina Raimondo (New College, 1993) was the first woman to be Governor of Rhode Island. She has been confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of Commerce. Dr Raimondo completed a DPhil in Sociology; her thesis was on single motherhood in the United States.

Pete Buttigieg (Pembroke, 2005) was elected Mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He won fame as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. He is confirmed as the new Secretary of Transportation. At Oxford, he read PPE.

Professor Eric Lander (Wolfson, 1978), will be leading the newly created US Office of Science and Technology Policy. A Professor of Biology at MIT and of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, at Oxford he wrote a DPhil on algebraic coding theory. He has made landmark contributions to the sequencing of the human genome. He was  a senior science advisor to President Obama, ensuring proper use of scientific evidence in criminal justice.

Other Oxford alumni in high-ranking positions in the Biden administration include:

• Dr. William J. Burns (St John’s, 1981) is the incoming Director of the CIA.
• Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall (Balliol, 1981) is the new Homeland Security Advisor.
• Jake Sullivan (Magdalen, 1998) is the National Security Advisor.
• Jonathan Finer (Balliol, 1999) is the Deputy National Security Advisor.
• Dr. Susan Rice (New College, 1996), the former National Security Advisor, will lead the Domestic Policy Council.
• Dr. Kurt M. Campbell (Brasenose, 1981) will be Coordinator of Indo-Pacific affairs.
• Bruce Reed (Lincoln, 1982) will serve as White House Deputy Chief of Staff.
• Megan Ceronsky (Hertford, 2001), the climate change advisor for the Obama administration, will take up a role in the Office of White House Counsel.
• Machmud Makhmudov (Magdalen, 2016) completed an MPhil in Political Theory in 2018 and is serving as a Policy Advisor for the Office of COVID Response. He supported the Biden campaign as a Policy Analyst.