Joe Biden's 11 Key Appointments Includes 2 Indian-Americans to Serve Top Posts

President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate 11 individuals including two Indian-Americans to serve in key roles.

The nominated individuals included – Gabe Camarillo, Alan Estevez, Jeff Lane Flake, Kent Doyle Logsdon, Lisa Wang, Chester John Culver, Rich Trumka Jr, James A Diossa, Terrence K Wright along with two Indian-Americans Rahul Gupta and Atul Gawande.

Indian-American Dr Rahul Gupta is West Virginia’s former health commissioner. He is also a top health official at maternal-and-child advocacy group March of Dimes, and will be nominated as the next director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the Washington Post reported, quoting two White House officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Dr Gupta, a primary-care doctor who led Biden’s transition efforts for the drug policy office, would be the first physician to serve as drug czar if confirmed by the Senate. “President Biden’s nomination of Dr. Rahul Gupta to be the first physician ever to lead the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is another historic step in the Administration’s efforts to turn the tide of our nation’s addiction and overdose epidemic,” the White House said in a statement.

Dr. Gupta brings firsthand experience as a medical doctor and public health official using evidence-based strategies to address the overdose epidemic in West Virginia, it said. “We hope he will be confirmed by the Senate soon, the statement added.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden intends to nominate Indian-American surgeon and popular author Atul Gawande to a senior leadership position in the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Gawande is also founder and chair of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, and of Lifebox, a nonprofit organization making surgery safer globally.

Gawande is the Cyndy and John Fish Distinguished Professor of Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Samuel O. Thier Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

In addition, Gawande has been a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine since 1998. He is the winner of two National Magazine Awards, Academy Health’s Impact Award for highest research impact on health care, a MacArthur Fellowship, and the Lewis Thomas Award for writing about science.

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