Indian-American lawyer and rights activist Kiran Ahuja has been nominated by US President Joe Biden to lead the Office of Personnel Management, an agency that manages more than two million federal employees.
Ahuja, 49, would become the first Indian-American to hold this position in the federal government. Besides being born in India, she is also a lawyer with the US Department of Justice and the founder of a non-profit organization, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. In 2017, she became the CEO of Philanthropy Northwest.
Kiran Ahuja served as the founding executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF), a Chicago-based non-profit organization, from 2003 to 2008. Under the Obama-Biden administration, she served six years as the executive director of the White House Initiative for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, increasing access to federal services, programs, and resources to underserved Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
As an Indian immigrant growing up in Savannah, Georgia, Ahuja earned degrees in political science and law from Spelman College and the University of Georgia. Washington Post reports Ahuja will be given the mandate to reverse the policies of former President Donald Trump when it comes to the civil service, which he and his top aides often described as a deep state of Democrats.
Biden has pledged to revitalize the workforce after agencies lost highly qualified experts during the Trump era, the daily said. Ahuja’s nomination was welcomed by Congressman Gerry Connolly, chairman of the subcommittee on government operations in the House of Representatives. The management experience and expertise Ahuja has developed during his years at OPM are vital to the agency’s rebuilding after being eliminated by the previous administration, he said. After her confirmation by the Senate, Connolly said he looks forward to working with her to transform OPM into the nation’s premier human resources and leadership training organization.
Congresswoman Judy Chu said President Biden made a good choice by nominating Ahuja as director of the OPM. Kiran has over two decades of experience serving in government, non-profit, and philanthropic sectors, making her uniquely qualified to lead OPM at this critical time when we are cultivating a workforce that reflects the diversity of our country, she says.
Employees of the American Federation of Governments issued a statement stating, Bringing extensive experience and advocacy on behalf of women of colour to federal personnel matters, we have reasons to be confident that Kiran Ahuja will reverse the previous administration’s undermining of diversity initiatives across government.
National Treasury Employee Union president Tony Reardon has said The Office of Personnel Management was constantly disrupted and dismantled during the Trump administration to the detriment of federal employees who rely on the agency’s independence and management of important programs for federal employees. It is our belief that this appointment will ensure steady, professional leadership at OPM committed to protecting its unique role in administering federal retirement programs and other human resource management priorities, he added.
