Oral history interview with Krishanti O’Mara Vignarajah, 2021
Abstract
Krishanti Vignarajah reflects on her upbringing and education, and discusses her work in the Obama administration, in which she served as a senior advisor in the State Department and, from 2015 to 2017, as policy director to First Lady Michelle Obama. Vignarajah focuses on her time in the East Wing, and speaks widely about Let Girls Learn, the first lady's global initiative to expand girls' access to education. She provides details about the launch and development of the initiative, including about the East Wing's management of interagency collaborations and partnerships with private sector firms and organizations; Michelle Obama's personal commitment to the cause; the East Wing's public awareness campaign; diplomacy with prospective partner countries; and the role of Let Girls Learn-related programming in the first lady's foreign travel. Also discussed are the Vignarajah family's immigration from Sri Lanka to the U.S., the process by which Mrs. Obama identified areas for policy focus, and the administration's approach to the final two years of the presidency
Presidents--United States; Girls--Access to education--United States; Vignarajah, Krishanti, 1979-; Obama, Barack; Obama, Michelle, 1964-; Let Girls Learn (Program); United States. Department of State; United States. Office of the First Lady
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2021
Physical Description
20 pages
Note (Biographical)
Krishanti Vignarajah served in the Obama administration as a state department senior advisor to Secretaries Hillary Clinton and John Kerry from 2011 to 2015. She then moved to the East Wing of the Obama White House, where she served as policy director to First Lady Michelle Obama from 2015 to 2017. After her time in the Obama administration, Vignarajah ran for governor of Maryland, and, in 2019, became president and CEO of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Note
Interviewed by Mary Marshall Clark on February 18, 2021. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Krishanti O’Mara Vignarajah, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2023