Neera Tanden is the president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, and the CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. She helped found the center, first working as senior vice president for domestic policy and later as chief operating officer. She ran the organization from 2011 to 2020, adding 10 policy teams and growing the budget by two-thirds.
Tanden was previously the domestic policy adviser to President Joe Biden and director of the Domestic Policy Council, overseeing some of the administration’s signature achievements, including its efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs and expand health insurance coverage. Prior to that, she was senior adviser and staff secretary in the White House. She has also served as senior adviser for health reform at the US Department of Health and Human Services, policy director for Hillary Clinton’s first presidential campaign, legislative director in then-Sen. Clinton’s office, and a senior policy adviser to the first lady.
Tanden holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a law degree from Yale Law School.