Biden Nominates Former Obama Chief of Staff to Serve as Solicitor of Labor

Nominee also served as ex-DNC official and held various jobs in the DOL for three years

President Biden has nominated Seema Nanda as the Solicitor of Labor, the number 3 official at the Department of Labor (DOL). The nomination of Nanda, who is Indian American, comes after two Democratic senators criticized the President over the lack of Asian American Pacific Islander representation in the administration.

Since June 2020, Nanda has worked as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School Labor & Worklife Program and as a self-employed consultant. From July 2018 to May 2020, she was the CEO for the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC). For one year prior to her role at the DNC, Nanda was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Nanda began working for the DOL in 2013 as deputy chief of staff before transitioning to deputy solicitor for five months in 2016 working under Labor Secretary Tom Perez for the Obama administration. She finished out the Obama administration as the department’s chief of staff for seven months. Nanda will be the first person to have been nominated with prior experience at the DOL.

Nanda has a Doctor of Law from Boston College Law School and a B.A. from Brown University.

White House press release