X

The NAAHP Haitian American Leadership Award Scholarship application is open through April 26  Apply Now

Karine Jean-Pierre

Senior Advisor, Biden for President

Chief of Staff for Vice Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris

Karine Jean-Pierre is a seasoned political operative whose professional experience includes running presidential campaigns, leading grassroots activism, and working in the Obama White House. During the 2020 cycle, Jean-Pierre drove strategy and executed major initiatives for the Biden-Harris presidential campaign as Senior Advisor to the campaign and Chief of Staff to the Vice Presidential Nominee, Senator Kamala Harris. Prior to this, she served as the Chief Public Affairs Officer for MoveOn, one of the nation’s largest grassroots progressive organizations, and an NBC and MSNBC Political Analyst.

Karine Jean-Pierre is a veteran of electoral and advocacy campaigns on a local, state, and national level. She served as the Deputy Campaign Manager for Martin O’Malley for President in 2016, and she led the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Initiate (RFI) as Campaign Manager. In 2013, she managed Tish James’ successful campaign for New York City Public Advocate.

Jean-Pierre is proud to be an alumni of both the Obama White House and both the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. In 2011, Jean-Pierre served as Deputy Battleground States Director for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, managing the President’s political engagement in key states while leading the delegate selection and ballot access process. Before joining the 2012 re-election campaign, she served as the Regional Political Director for the White House Office of Political Affairs. Before that, she worked on the Obama for America campaign in 2008 as the Southeast Regional Political Director; she served the John Edwards for President Campaign in the same capacity earlier in the 2008 election cycle.

Jean-Pierre’s interests demonstrate her concern for integrity and the human condition. In graduate school, she explored her Haitian roots through documentary film. Later, she worked at the Center for Community and Corporate Ethics and pushed major companies like Wal-Mart to change their business practices. While working in New York, Jean-Pierre served as Press Secretary to Congressman Anthony Weiner, Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Legislative and Budget Affairs for two City Council Members respectively in the New York City Council.

She joined the Columbia University faculty in 2014 where she teaches a course at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and was named a 2019 Pritzker Fellow at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. She received her MPA from Columbia University’s SIPA in 2003.