Krishanti O'Mara Vignarajah

Krish Vignarajah
Policy Director to the First Lady of the United States
In office May 2015 – January 2017
President	Barack Obama
Senior Advisor at the United States Department of State
In office October 2011 – May 2015
President	Barack Obama
Personal details
Born	Krishanti Vignarajah Sri Lanka
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Collin O'Mara
Children	1
Education	Yale University (BS, MA) Yale Law School (JD) Magdalen College, Oxford (MPhil)

Krishanti "Krish" O'Mara Vignarajah^[1] is the former Policy Director for United States First Lady Michelle Obama. She is the current CEO and Founder of Generation Impact. Before the White House, Vignarajah served as a Senior Advisor at the State Department under Secretary Clinton and Secretary Kerry.

In February 2017, Vignarajah founded Generation Impact, a company that helps nonprofit organizations and advocacy organizations achieve sustainable impact. Later that year, she announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor of Maryland in the 2018 primary election.^[2][3][4] She tied for third place in a field of 9 candidates.^[5]

Early life and education

Vignarajah is of Sri Lankan Tamil descent and resides in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She is a daughter of two Baltimore City public school teachers, Sothy and Ely Vignarajah of Baltimore.^[6] She was 9 months old when her family escaped the growing violence in Sri Lanka in 1980 "before the civil war and arrived in Maryland with two kids and $200".^[7] Her mother started teaching at Poly High School in 1970, and after taking time to help raise her family and going back to get her PhD in her 60s, finished her career teaching at Morgan State University. Her father recently retired from Western High School in Baltimore City at the age of 80 after a career spanning 53 years. Vignarajah attended Baltimore County Public Schools starting from Woodbridge Elementary to Woodlawn High School in Baltimore.^[8]

Vignarajah graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale College with a Master’s degree in Political Science and a B.S. in Molecular Biology. She subsequently obtained an M.Phil. in International Relations at Magdalen College, Oxford as a Marshall Scholar. She then went on to law school back at Yale, where she served as Features and Reviews Editor on the Yale Law Journal. During her academic career, Vignarajah received the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation Prize, the Benjamin Scharps Prize, the Joseph Parker Prize, the Potter Stewart Prize, and the Thurman Arnold Prize. After law school, she practiced law at Jenner & Block in Washington, D.C., clerked for Chief Judge Michael Boudin on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and taught U.S. foreign policy and international law at Georgetown University as an adjunct. She has published several articles, including the Journal of World Trade and Chicago Law Review.

Career

In October 2011, Vignarajah was named as Senior Advisor at the State Department to Deputy Secretaries William Burns and Thomas Nides under Secretary Clinton, and subsequently remained as Senior Advisor to Deputy Secretary Heather Higginbottom under Secretary Kerry. In that role, Vignarajah helped manage State Department initiatives and programs related to private sector investment and public-private partnerships, agency and bureau budgeting, development strategies around health, food security and climate change, youth and religious engagement, global women's issues, and regional issues relating to Africa and the Middle East. Vignarajah also served as an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University, teaching international law and U.S. foreign policy, and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Before she obtained the post as Michelle Obama's Policy Director, she had worked at a consulting firm McKinsey & Company in New York and a law firm Jenner & Block in Chicago.^[9]

In early 2015, Vignarajah was named Michelle Obama's new Policy Director. At the White House, Vignarajah led the Let Girls Learn initiative, which brought together a number of government agencies, private sector partners and countries to address the range of challenges preventing adolescent girls from attaining a quality education. Vignarajah oversaw the creation of an international coalition of governments that included Japan, Pakistan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, plus over 100 private sector companies and organizations including IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Girl Scouts, and Lands' End.

Vignarajah left the White House at the end of the Obama Administration and began her own firm, Generation Impact, which partners with nonprofits and social enterprises to create strategic partnerships and execute innovative strategies to positively impact on the world. She works to advance issues like education, entrepreneurship and women and girls empowerment. In May 2017, she gave the commencement address at Hood College, which was named one of the 9 most inspiring commencement speeches of 2017 by Buzzfeed.^[10]

In February 2018, she announced that her running mate in the Maryland governor's race would be Sharon Blake, former president of the Baltimore Teachers Union.^[11] The Vignarajah/Blake gubernatorial ticket is the first in Maryland to include two women of color.^{[12] [13] [8]}

In the Democratic primary election, Vignarajah tied for third place in a field of 9 candidates.^[5]

Personal life

Vignarajah is married to Collin O'Mara, CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. They have a daughter.^[1]

Vignarajah is the sister of Thiruvendran Vignarajah.^[14]

References