Vice President Kamala Harris adviser Rohini Kosoglu started career in mail room
U.S. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris today named Rohini Kosoglu as her chief domestic policy adviser. She is “one of my closest and most trusted aides from the Senate and presidential campaign,” said Harris.
Kosoglu, 36, currently Senior Advisor to Harris, previously served as Senior Advisor on the Biden-Harris Campaign. As Chief of Staff to Harris’ unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, Kosoglu oversaw debate preparation, policy, communications, and operations for a team with over three-hundred staff and a $40 million budget.
Earlier, she was Chief of Staff for Harris’ Senate office. She directed Harris’ legislative strategy and leadership on key committees, including the Senate Judiciary, Homeland Security and Government Affairs, and Budget Committees.
As Policy Director for U.S. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, Kosoglu oversaw economic, health care and budget issues. She negotiated several bipartisan bills into law and served as a senior health care advisor during the drafting and passage of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
In 2006, Kosoglu got into politics, while a senior at the University of Michigan. She started as an intern in the office of U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan. She then took the opportunity to work in Washington D.C., starting as the mail room manager for Stabenow. Two years later, she had worked her way up in Stabenow’s office as a senior policy adviser.
During the Spring 2020 semester, Kosoglu was a resident fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Kosoglu received a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Legislative Affairs from George Washington University. She is married to a Turkish-American Ozkan Sedat Kosoglu, a software engineer; their wedding was held in Turkey. They and their three sons, all under the age of seven, reside in the Washington D.C. area.
Kosoglu was born and raised in New Jersey. Her father Wijeyadevendram Ravindran was an Emergency Medicine Specialist, affiliated with the Community Medical Center in Toms River, New Jersey. In 1969, Ravindran played cricket for St. Thomas College, Mt Lavinia, and in 1974 graduated from University of Colombo’s medical school, both in Sri Lanka.
Kosoglu’s mother, with a master’s degree in accounting from Rutgers University, is a homemaker. Her parents emigrated to the United States from Jaffna, Sri Lanka in the early 1980s. Her brother Raman Ravindran is a video editor.
Kosoglu told Roll Call that she was passionate about advancing diversity and that in this regard, “I definitely try to prioritize if any women, particularly women of color…just want to meet to talk about how to move up on the Hill or they are interested in working on the Hill.”
Early this year, Kosoglu told the Harvard Political Review that, like her father’s work as an emergency room doctor, her political work is driven by a “sense of fairness that makes me want to keep fighting for a system that’s fair on behalf of other people. “
