Sameera Fazili

Sameera Fazili is an American attorney and community development finance expert who is a Deputy Director of the National Economic Council in the Biden Administration.[1] Previously, she was working as the Director of Engagement for Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.[2]

Sameera Fazili
Deputy Director of the National Economic Council for Manufacturing, Innovation and Domestic Competition
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 20, 2021
PresidentJoe Biden
DirectorBrian Deese
Preceded byPosition established
Personal details
BornWilliamsville, New York
Political partyDemocratic
EducationHarvard University (AB)
Yale University (JD)

Early life

Sameera Fazili is the daughter of Mohammad Yusuf Fazili and Rafiqa Fazili, both doctors, who migrated to the US from Kashmir Valley in India.[1] Fazili earned a bachelor's degree in social sciences from Harvard College, graduating with magna cum laude. She obtained her Juris Doctor (JD) from Yale Law School.[1][3]

Career

Fazili started as a clinical lecturer at Yale Law School's community and economic development unit. She expanded the clinic's work to international microfinance and helped start a community development financial institution (CDFI) bank. She also worked at a CDFI bank called ShoreBank, said to be the first such bank in the US.[1]

Later Fazili worked in the US Treasury Department on issues related to CDFIs, housing finance and small business finance. She was also a senior adviser and chief of staff to Treasury's Under Secretary for International Affairs.[2]

She joined the Obama Administration as a Senior Policy Adviser in the National Economic Council, where she covered retirement, consumer finance and community and economic development issues.[2][4] Afterwards, she worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta as the Director of Engagement in its community and economic development department.[2]

As a Deputy Director of the National Economic Council in the Biden Administration, Fazili will be focused on manufacturing, innovation and domestic competition.[5]

Human rights

Before law school, Fazili worked at Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights. Her experience in human rights includes working at the World Health Organization and United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), on missions in Palestine, Kashmir and Pakistan. She is an activist for religious freedom and international human rights.[3] Fazili has supported 'Stand with Kashmir', a diaspora-led international solidarity movement of Kashmiris, and has opposed the Indian government's revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.[6]

Personal life

Fazili is married and has three children. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia[1] and has extended family in Kashmir.[7] Her sister Yousra Fazili, a human rights lawyer, testified at the November 2019 US Congressional hearing on the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.[8]

References
  1. Tahir Bhat (January 15, 2021), "Biden Aide Sameera Fazili's Parents Wanted Her To Be A Doctor, She Left Medical School To Join Yale", Kashmir Life
  2. "Sameera Fazili, JD". Policies for Action (A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Programme). Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  3. Sameera Fazili, Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality & Equality, retrieved January 19, 2021.
  4. White House Senior Staff: Sameera Fazili, Biden-Harris Transition, retrieved January 19, 2021.
  5. "Who are the Indian-Americans in US President Joe Biden's administration".
  6. Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury, Joe Biden's economic council pick Sameera Fazili was part of protests against Article 370 abrogation, The Economic Times, 18 January 2021.
  7. ‘She has a strong affinity with Kashmir’, says kin of Sameera Fazili, The Kashmir Walla, 17 January 2021.
  8. "In Biden team, a cousin of man held in J&K under PSA post-August 5". The Indian Express. January 24, 2021.
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