Reema Dodin, a North Carolina-born Palestinian-American woman, just made history when President Joe Biden appointed her to the position of “Deputy Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs”.
Dodin’s parents, Bajis and Samia, immigrated to North Carolina in the 1960s from Dura, Hebron in the West Bank of Palestine. Dodin left the Tar Heel State after high school to earn her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley.
She began working for Senator Dick Durbin after graduation as a research assistant in 2006 and continually moved up the ranks to become his deputy chief of staff and floor director in 2011. She worked as Durbin’s aide for the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s subcommittee on human rights and co-authored a book entitled Inside Congress: A Guide for Navigating the Politics of the House and Senate Floors. She is also a fellow for the Truman National Security Project and the New Leaders Council.
“This daughter of immigrants will make history as the highest-ranking Palestinian-American woman ever to work in the executive branch,” Durbin said in a tribute delivered from the Senate floor.