Several Indian Americans make it to Obama Team

Eboo Patel

President Barack Obama signed last month an executive order establishing the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will work on behalf of Americans committed to improving their communities, no matter their religious or political beliefs.The Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will include a new President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, composed of religious and secular leaders and scholars from different backgrounds. There will be 25 members of the Council, appointed to 1-year terms.

An Indian American, Eboo Patel has been appointed to the revamped White House office for faith-based and neighborhood programs, expanding an initiative started by the Bush administration to support charitable organizations delivering social services.

Eboo Patel is founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international nonprofit that promotes interfaith cooperation. His blog, The Faith Divide, explores what drives faiths apart and what brings them together. He is the author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. An American Muslim of Indian heritage, Eboo has a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship. He is on the Religious Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Committee of the Aga Khan Foundation and the Advisory Board of Duke University’s Islamic Studies Center.

Eboo is an Ashoka Fellow, part of a select network of social entrepreneurs with ideas that could change the world.

“The revamped office will work on behalf of Americans committed to improving their communities, no matter their religious or political beliefs,” said Obama. The new office will be a resource for nonprofits and community organizations, both secular and faith based, looking for ways to make a bigger impact in their communities, learn their obligations under the law, cut through red tape and make the most of what the federal government has to offer. Obama appoints Indian-Americans Rashad Hussain and Shomik Datta to Legal Team President Obama has appointed Rashad Hussain, as the Deputy Associate Counsel to the President. Another Indian American, Shomik Datta, will offer his service as special assistant to President’s Counsel, Greg Craig.

Rashad Hussain

Hussain most recently served in the US Department of Justice and has a stellar academic and professional record. His parents are naturalized citizens from India and live in Plano, Texas. Hussain was born in 1978 to Indian immigrant parents living in Plano, Texas.

He earned his JD from Yale University and his MPA from Harvard University. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, he holds bachelor’s degrees with highest distinction in both philosophy and political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which he completed in two years.

He received highest honors for his philosophy thesis, “Assessing the Theistic Implications of Big Bang Cosmological Theory.” Hussain also holds an MA from Harvard University in Near Eastern languages and civilizations. He finds his heritage central to his identity as a Muslim American and his career goals, especiallyin light of events in recent history.

Nick Rathod

He has worked extensively on Capitol Hill, both as an intern in the office of former House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt during the summer of 2000 and as a legislative aide on the House Judiciary Committee, where he worked for a year and a half between his time at Harvard University and Yale University.

Hussain recently served as a Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice. Prior to that, he was as a Law Clerk to Damon J. Keith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Earlier in his career, Hussain served as a legislative assistant on the House Judiciary Committee, where he reviewed legislation such as the USA Patriot Act. Hussain earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, his Master’s degree in Public Administration and in Arabic & Islamic Studies from Harvard University, and his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Shomik has a varied general common law practice but has developed particular expertise in 4 main areas: landlord & tenant, property, contract & commercial and personal injury.

Shomik Datta

He acts for both landlords (whether social or private) and tenants in a variety of matters (whether business or residential) including possession and disrepair claims. He has lectured a number of local authorities in this area, particularly in relation to anti-social behavior (and bringing nuisance possession actions or applications for ASBOs) and the overlap between Insolvency Law and Housing Law.

He undertakes both advisory and Court work, with particular emphasis upon boundary disputes and the informal acquisition of rights in land. He has successfully litigated a number of cases relating to undue influence and unconscionability. He has advised upon and litigated numerous contractual and commercial disputes including actions against insurance companies for wrongful repudiation and crossborder insolvency.

Shomik acts for both Claimants and Defendants (though mainly for the latter) in wide ranging claims from employer’s liability matters to road traffic accidents to occupier’s liability, product liability and Highways Act claims. He accepts instructions on a CFA basis.

Nick Rathod Joins the White House President Obama has appointed Nick Rathod as Deputy Associate Director of the White House Office of Inter Governmental Affairs. Rathod, a civil rights attorney and one of the founders of South Asians for Obama was in the transition team where he had served as director of Intergovernmental Affairs.

At the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, Rathod and his colleagues will work with governors and mayors all over America on issues that are important to their states and cities and work with them on moving the agenda forward.

Rathod had earlier served in the New York governor’s office and as senior manager of state and regional affairs at the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank.

He said, “For the past two years, I have been among the indefatigable South Asian American volunteers on the Obama campaign and besides serving as the national outreach director of SAFO, also researched and drafted voter protection briefings for the North Carolina field staff of Obama for America and was a lead attorney in that state’s voter protection ‘boiler-room.”

“I want to make sure that we build a strong federal, state and local partnership at the outset. Rebuilding this relationship will only serve to provide a smart, strong and efficient government at all levels. I believe strongly in his vision of America, and so the prospect of being able to shape and carry out his vision is extremely humbling and personal to me.”

“I think about how just one generation ago, my family was living in dirt huts in Gujarat. They didn’t have much of any education and opportunities and now, only a generation later, I am serving in a senior level for the transition of a president of the United States. Only in this country is that story even remotely possible, which is why I will work diligently to assure that I serve my country to the best of my abilities I am very excited about his appointment.”

He was born and raised in Nebraska. He attended middle and high school in Shelton and Grand Island. In 1997, he received a bachelor of arts in political science from Nebraska Wesleyan University. In 2000, he received law degree from American University. He is married to Neera and has a daughter, Chandani, 8 months old. His father Rev. Dr. Samuel Rathod, hails from Gujarat, India and is a retired United Methodist clergy.

By Ajay Ghosh