Mala Adiga is an Indian-American lawyer and policy director of USA’s first lady Jill Biden, wife of the USA’s 46th president Joe Biden. Earlier, she has also served in various noted positions during the Obama administration from 2009 to 2017.
Wiki/Biography
Mala Adiga was born in 1973 (age 48 years; as of 2021) in Illinois, United States. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from Grinnell College in 1993, followed by a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in 1997. Thereafter, she attained a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 2002. [1]
Physical Appearance
Height (approx): 5′ 4″
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Mala Adiga at the White House in November 2016
Family & Caste
Parents & Siblings
Her father, Dr. Ramesh Adiga, alumni of Bangalore Medical College, migrated to the United States to refine his skills as a vascular surgeon at the age of 24. Mala’s mother, Dr. Jaya Adiga, who was a physician, passed away in 2018. Mala has two twin elder brothers, Shekhar (engineer in California) and Sridhar (lawyer in Chicago).
An old family picture featuring Mala Adiga with her parents and two elder brothers, Shekhar and Shridhar
Husband & Children
She is married to Charles Biro, who is also a lawyer by profession. The couple has a daughter named Asha (born in 2005).
An old picture of Mala Adiga in Mumbai along with her husband, Charles Biro
Career
As a Lawyer
Mala Adiga started her law career as a litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Chicago in October 2002. Thereafter, she worked as a clerk for Judge Philip Simon at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana from September 2005 to August 2007.
In Government Service
Before starting her career as a government servant, Mala worked as the Assistant Staff Counsel on the Obama-Biden 2008 presidential campaign. Mala has served at various administrative positions during the Obama administration from 2009 to 2017. She was a counsel to the associate attorney general of the United States from July 2009 to December 2011. She was a director for human rights on the National Security Staff’s (NSS) Multilateral and Human Rights Directorate from December 2011 to June 2013. In July 2013, she was appointed in the US Department of State as the Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor in US’s Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues. She held the post till January 2016 and was then elevated to a significant position as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for academic programs at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State. While serving on the post, she oversaw an extensive range of international educational programmes like the Gilman Scholarship Program and the Fulbright Program.
Mala Adiga delivering a speech at a Fullbright workshop in 2016
She was removed from the US Department State after the second presidential tenure of Barack Obama ended in January 2017. She has served as senior advisor to Jill Biden and senior Policy advisor to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on the 2020 US election campaign. After the election of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the US, Mala was re-elected in the US Department State after being elected as a member of Joe Biden’s Presidential transition team. She was given a key position in the Joe Biden administration as the Policy Director to the First Lady, i.e., Joe Biden’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden.
Facts/Trivia
- Although Mala has spent her entire life in the US, she has still not forgotten her roots on her way to success. She often pays a visit to relatives at her ancestral village Kakkunje, Kakkunje, located in Kundapura town of Karnataka, India.
Mala (standing 3rd from right) with twin brothers Sridhar, Shekar, and relatives in Kundapur.
- Mala comes from a prestigious family of K. Suryanarayana Adiga, a lawyer and member of the Mysore Legislative Council from 1966 to 1971, and Aravind Adiga, an Indian-Australian writer and journalist who won the Man Booker prize in 2008.
