Community Conversation
with Farooq Mitha
NEHA DEWAN
Neha has long been active in both local and national politics. Most recently, she founded and served as the National Director for South Asians for Biden, an organization dedicated to engaging, educating, and mobilizing the South Asian community to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. In 2016, Neha served as the National Co-Chair for South Asians for Hillary and was appointed by Hillary Clinton to the National AAPI Leadership Council.
Previously, in 2015, Neha was appointed as a guest of honor by the Consulate General of India in New York City where she was selected to speak about gender equality for International Women's Day. During the 2012 presidential campaign, Neha chaired the New York Chapter of South Asians for Obama and also served on the steering committee for Lawyers for Obama in New York. For several years, Neha served as an Officer of the New York Democratic Lawyers Council, an organization affiliated with the National Lawyers Council of the Democratic National Committee and comprised of Democratic lawyers and voting rights activists. Similarly, for many years, Neha served as an advisory board member of New Leaders Council, a national organization focused on training and supporting progressive political entrepreneurs. She has also been active in her local community board and political clubs. Neha served as the President of the South Asian Bar Association of New York in 2012, and now sits on the organization’s Board of Directors.
Mobilizing the South Asian Community & Building Political Power
CONGRESSMAN
RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, the Committee on Oversight and Reform and as Chairman of its Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, Vice-Chair of the LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, Co-Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Immigration Task Force, and as an Assistant Whip for the Democratic caucus.
Congressman Krishnammorthi is also the founder and Chairman of both the bipartisan Congressional Caucus to End the Youth Vaping Epidemic and the bipartisan Solar Caucus.
Raja previously served in Illinois state government on the board of the Illinois Housing Development Authority, as a Special Assistant Attorney General in the office’s anti-corruption unit, and as Deputy State Treasurer, before becoming president of small technology businesses in the Chicago area.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University, and received his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.
Raja and his wife, Priya, a physician, live in Schaumburg with their two sons and daughter.
