Neera Tanden

COO, Center for American Progress

Neera Tanden has over a decade of experience in the executive and legislative branch, as well as in campaigns, local government, and think tanks. She has most recently served as senior advisor for health reform at Health and Human Services, advising Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and working on the president’s health reform team. In that role, she developed policies around reform, and worked with the Hill and with outside groups on the president’s health reform legislation. She also served as co-chair of the Federal Coordinating Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research, which advised the secretary on how to best invest the $1.1 billion in comparative effectiveness research as allocated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Prior to that, she was the director of domestic policy for the Obama-Biden presidential campaign, where she managed all domestic policy proposals, including health care. Before that, Tanden served as policy director for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign where she directed all policy work, ranging from domestic to economic to foreign affairs, and oversaw the debate preparation process for the candidate.

Before the presidential campaign, Tanden was Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Center for American Progress, which she rejoined. She was one of the first senior staff members at CAP, joining as Senior Vice President for Domestic Policy when CAP first opened its doors. In between, Tanden was Senator Clinton’s legislative director, where she oversaw all policy in the Senate office. In 2000, Neera was Hillary Clinton’s deputy campaign manager and issues director for her Senate campaign in New York. Tanden also served as associate director for domestic policy in the Clinton White House, and senior policy advisor to the first lady. She received her bachelor of science degree at UCLA and received her law degree from Yale Law School.